The death penalty is a good crime deterrent.

Killing does not stop killing

Few debates spark as much contention in the United States as the one concerning capital punishment . The death penalty has been a major factor in the justice systems of countries worldwide and throughout time . Lately , research has shown that the death penalty is not a deterrent to crime as once thought . Individuals cite the long prisons stays and process of justice , the rise of doubt as to its effectiveness and the lack of evidence supporting it as a deterrence as reasons to abolish the death penalty in

the United States . For these reasons , I argue in favor of the proposition that the death penalty does not deter crime

Thirty years ago , the main argument in favor of capital punishment was the deterrence argument . This argument says that the judiciary system must punish criminals to discourage others from committing the same or similar crimes . Thus the death of one offender sends a message to future offenders and frightens them from committing the crimes lest they , too , meet with death . This deterrence idea operates under three principles - certainly , celerity and severity (Radelet and Borg 2000 ,

.44-45 . In other words , the criminals or potential criminals must be certain that they will receive punishment that is swift and severe . However , in the last thirty years , all three of these principals have waned , making deterrence an unsound argument , unbelieved by potential criminals

First , the promise of execution is in no way certain . There are many individuals that are automatically or essentially automatically excluded from the death sentence , including the mentally challenged , most juveniles , most women , those with incompetent representation , those in states with strong political and religious opposition to capital punishment , resistance of jurors to hand down the sentence .the list goes on and on . According to Sundby (2006 , Whether examined in the context of what is happening in the nation 's courtrooms or in the arena of public opinion and legislative action , many indicators suggest that the death penalty in America is on the ropes ' Indeed the last two year documented (2004 and 2005 ) show the lowest number of death sentences handed down in over thirty years and represent a 61 drop since only ten years ago . States like New Jersey , New York , and Massachusetts , to name a few , are hesitant to re-enact the death penalty after several of their existing laws pertaining to it were declared unconstitutional (Sundby , 2006 . The option of life without parole which really means life without parole now , makes the death penalty less attractive as well . North

Carolina , for example , has seen a drastic drop in death sentences since it adopted life without parole in 2001 , a decline that some have attributed to the availability of life without parole as an option Clearly , several divergent factors determine whether or not the death penalty will even be sentenced , which makes it no certainty in the minds of potential criminals

Next , even if a death sentence is actually conferred onto an individual the verifiable death...