To Free the Truth

 A humane and generous concern for every individual, his health and his fulfillment, will do more to soothe the savage heart than the fear of state-inflicted death, which chiefly serves to remind us how close we remain to the  jungle.

          –Ramsey Clark

If you find yourself in a conversation about the death penalty, you are bound to hear some point about deterrence. To add to that, you’ll hear statements about saving lives, about punishing the offender by killing him in the same exact way he killed his victims, or maybe even public executions. Those statements are usually followed by something to the effect of…”then they’ll think twice before they kill somebody…”

Before you let such utterances spew forth from your person, you might want to be a little more informed first. You can read research studies on the deterrence factor which could favor either argument, but the same can be said of any issue. It all depends on the research method and the interpretations of the data, but numbers don’t lie. All you have to do is simply compare the murder rates of those states with the death penalty to other states or better yet, compare murder rates to the number of executions. Here’s what you’ll find…

The South has been responsible for the good majority of all executions since the death penalty was reinstated. 1153 executions have occurred. Of those, 921 were in the South. Going by region, the South also had the highest murder rate at 7.0 per 100,000 people in 2007. The region with the fewest executions since reinstatement? Yeah, they also had the lowest murder rates.

Getting more specific especially since much of this site is trying to raise awareness about freeing an innocent man on death row, let’s discuss Texas. Texas is responsible for almost half of the executions which have occurred in the South…literally almost half the executions which occurred in the entire nation since 1976. This year alone, 10 people have been killed by the state. That’s more than many other states have executed in 30 years…and Texas has done it in less than 3 months. But, here’s the kicker, Texas still has a high murder rate. The national rate for 2007 was 5.6. Texas ranked in at 5.9. So, here it is in black and white, folks… Our nation’s killing machine still has a murder rate above the nation’s average. And you can’t say it’s because death still really isn’t a threat there. People in Texas don’t sit on death row for decades. The average Texas death row inmate lives 6 1/2 years after being sentenced.

What’s even more interesting is that New York state, which doesn’t have the death penalty, doesn’t see the same types of crime rates as states which do, even states which utilize it often. When looking at homicide rates, New York rates pretty low on the list even with the highly populated NYC. And, the same can be said of other non death penalty states. States without the death penalty are few but do include: Alaska, Hawaii, Minnesota, North Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Iowa,  New Jersey, New Mexico, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Also, D.C. Almost all of these states have a murder rate well below the national average while at least half of those states with the death penalty rank in above the national average. In fact, a NY times article found that in the last 20 years, death penalty states have had a murder rate 48-101% higher than states without it.

It’s quite easy to see the problem is most likely that people don’t want to see what’s right in front of them. Executions don’t deter murder. At all. Killing doesn’t stop killing. And, when it all boils down to it, many of the people that advocate capital punishment aren’t really concerned with deterrence. It just sounds more reasonable. The underlying motivator here is revenge. George Bush told us that it should never be about revenge; it’s about saving the lives of others. Well, W., that’s what life without the possibility of parole is for, I do believe. Have a good, deeply involved discussion with a group of people about capital punishment and listen to the statements about mirroring the crime as punishment, about going back to public executions, about torturing murderers…quartering them like in ‘the good ole days’….I’ve heard all of those and more. Those statements reek of revenge and blood thirst and nothing more….