Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr GonZo
The only true way of comparing the impact of caplital punishment (I won't use the acronym for obvious reasons) is by comparing murder rates directly before and directly after (maybe a time span of a few years) it's introduction/termination in the same area.
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In the United States application of capital punishment was halted between 1972 and 1976. First halted after the Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia which ruled that giving a Jury complete discretion over the application of capital punishment was unconstitutional. It was re-instated after the decisions of Gregg v. Georgia and Jurek v. Texas, ruling that it was
not a violation of the 8th amendment. Executions resumed on January 17, 1977 when Gary Gilmore was killed by firing squad after demanding that Utah carry out the sentence (something they apparently had no intention of doing). His last words were "Let's do it."
Here are the stats for murder and non-negligent homicide from the US for the years 1972-1980
1972 - 18,670
1973 - 19,640
1974 - 20,710
1975 - 20,510
1976 - 18.780
1977 - 19,120
1978 - 19.560
1979 - 21,460
1980 - 23,040
So, there did seem to be an initial drop in homicides after the re-institution of the death penalty, but it was a short-lived drop and murders quickly rose to numbers higher than they had been during the moratorium.
The numbers continue to fluctuate, reaching a high of 24,703 killings in 1991 (at the height of the Crack epidemic) and dropping to a low of 15,522 in 1999.
1999 also saw the most executions carried out in the US with 98 and 2000 was the year that the most inmates were waiting on death row - 3,601.
sources:
http://www.albany.edu/sourcebook/pdf/t6792004.pdf
http://www.clarkprosecutor.org/html/death/timeline.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gilmore
So there are some stats for you. They don't change my mind.