Does the death penalty deter future crime?
• As the bishops and countless studies have pointed out, this has never been scientifically proven. It is said the death penalty proves, “Crime does not pay.” But this is more rhetoric than reality. It is more wishful thinking than fact. • On the contrary, the type of criminals who are involved in highly-paying crimes are not the type of criminals who are being sent to death row. • Heinous crimes, on the other hand, are often crimes of passion. They are not normally committed after rational calculation of the type of penalties attached to them. They are often committed under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or deep personal frustration or anger. The “knowledge of the possibility of the death penalty” does not stop the crime. • Insofar as penalties can deter, the certitude of life imprisonment without parole deters more than the occasional death penalty. Crimes met more consistently with certain arrest, conviction, and imprisonment deter more than the remote possibility of a death sen
