Does the Death Penalty Deter?
Opponents claim that the death penalty does not deter crime. This may be so. Certainly, if a would-be killer is weighing the consequences of his actions, he can anticipate with some confidence that death is highly unlikely, particularly in the immediate future. The overwhelming majority of people convicted of murder are not sentenced to death, and those who are may still bring extensive (though often ill-fated) appeals. Due largely to post-sentence challenges, many prisoners have remained on death row for over ten years. These factors may lessen the immediacy of the death penalty in the minds of those planning a murder. The problem for death penalty opponents, however, is that given these realities, the deterrence problem could just as effectively be solved by swifter, more frequent application of the death penalty as by its abolition. Is the Death Penalty Barbaric and Hypocritical? Death penalty opponents also argue that the government behaves barbarically and hypocritically when it f
