Doesn't deter crime
Leslie Cantu:
Contrary to popular belief, the death penalty does not act as a deterrent
to crime. "Expert after expert and study after study have emphasized and
emphasized the lack of correlation between the threat of the death penalty
and the occurrence of violent crime" (Meador 69). Isaac Ehrlich's study on
the deterrent effect of capital punishment in America reveals this. It
spans twenty-five years, 1957-1982, and shows that in the first year the
study was conducted there were 8,060 murders in 1957 and 65 executions.
However, in the last year of the study, there were 22,520 murders committed
and 1 execution performed. The absence of deterrence is clearly shown.