Does Capital Punishment Act As a Deterrent?
Capital punishment detractors claim that capital punishment does not act as a deterrent, as interviews with many prisoners on death row have substantiated their claims that the penalty of death would not have stopped many murderers from perpetrating their acts of violence. In the last 20 years, there have been over 450,000 homicides in this country with about 750 inmate executions. With this insignificant statistical data, how can anyone make a profound statement as to the ineffectiveness of the death penalty? Since the death penalty was restored in California in 1978, death row has held 641 condemned inmates, with a miniscule total of 10 executions. During that period, 12 committed suicide, 3 were killed by other inmates, and 38 have died of other causes. The average length of time inmates are on death row is 16 years, 1 month, which suggests that many inmates simply die of old age. How can this possibly be construed as a deterrent? Something is drastically wrong with the entire legal
