Death Penalty As a Deterrent Term Paper

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In contrast, other data, compiled by state and federal agencies within the last twenty years, failed "to demonstrate any deterrent value to the death penalty" and according to data from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, "when states with the death penalty (were) compared to those without the death penalty," it was shown that "a majority of death penalty states have homicide rates higher than non-death penalty states" (Espejo 58).

The death penalty has also come under other criticism, especially in relation to executing innocent persons on death row in America's prison system. Of course, with the advent of DNA testing, many death-row inmates have been exonerated after tests revealed that they could not have been involved in their alleged crimes. Yet some death penalty advocates still believe that the possibility of executing innocent people does not justify the abolition of the death penalty. As Stephen Markman puts it, "the death penalty serves to protect a vastly greater number of innocent lives than are likely to be lost through its erroneous application" (Pojman 216). Amazingly, a 1995 Gallup poll revealed that 57% of Americans would still favor the death penalty even if one out of one hundred of those executed were undeniably innocent (Pojman 267).

In conclusion, the death penalty continues to be a highly controversial issue with most Americans and its deterrent effect has still not been absolutely determined. Yet it is clear that the death penalty does serve society quite well under certain circumstances, but in reality, society must begin to understand the reasons why people commit violent crimes and determine how to change a person's violent tendencies which in the end will make the death penalty unnecessary.

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Annotated Bibliography

Bedau, Hugo a. And Paul G. Cassell, Eds. Debating the Death Penalty. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. (Contains the viewpoints of seven experts who debate the death penalty in a clear and thought-provoking way).

Bidinotto, Robert. Criminal Justice?: The Legal System vs. Individual Responsibility. New York: Foundation for Economic Education, 1996. (as one of the leading exponents against the death penalty, Bidinotto explores the controversies surrounding this issue with great flair and consideration for facts).

Espejo, Roman, Ed. Does Capital Punishment Deter Crime? Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson-Gale, 2003. (Espejo presents divergent views on whether or not the most severe of punishments can deter the gravest crimes).

Pojman, Louis and Jeffrey Reiman. The Death Penalty: For and Against. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998. (Pojman provides the reader with a similar methodology as Espejo but explores this issue in more depth and without much subjective wanderings).

Prejean, Helen. Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the Unites States. New York: Random House, 1993. (Prejean offers a fascinating account of her personal experiences with death-row inmates and relates her own views on the death penalty, mostly in the negative).

Williams, Mary E., Ed. Is the Death Penalty Fair? Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson-Gale, 2003. (Williams presents various opinions on the fairness of the death penalty and whether reforms can help prevent or reduce wrongful executions).

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Death Penalty As a Deterrent for Murder

Abstract This paper examines the death penalty as a deterrent and argues that states have not only the right but the duty to apply the death penalty to criminal cases because it is incumbent upon states to back the law with force. The death penalty acts as a forceful and compelling consequence for those who should choose to violate the law and commit murder. For that reason it can be said to be a deterrent. This paper also examines the opposing arguments and shows that those would say it is not an effective deterrent cannot… Continue Reading...

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