Death penalty opponents often say that capital punishment isn’t a deterrent to crime while proponents say it is. Which is it?
States without the death penalty actually have lower murder rates than those with the death penalty. During the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48% – a full 101% higher than in states without the death penalty.(2) and from 1992-2002, the murder rate in non-death penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rate in states with the death penalty (footnot this(The Wall Street Journal, 6/21/02). According to preliminary FBI Uniform Crime Report figures released in June 2005, the nation’s murder rate dropped 3.6% in 2004. The number of executions also declined in 2004. The largest drop in murder was attributed to Chicago, which saw its lowest murder tally since 1965 – even though Illinois had commuted all its death sentences to life without parole and has a several-year-old death penalty moratorium in place. In 2003, the South had the highest murder rate in the country, and that appeared to continue in 2004 even as the South carried out
