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Answering the hard questions: Myth or fact?

By Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing

Mtyh: The death penalty deters crime.Fact: Studies have repeatedly shown that the death penalty does not deter violent crime any more than other punishments such as life imprisonment. Eighty-eight percent of the country?s top criminologists do not believe the death penalty acts as a deterrent to homicide (Radelet and Lacock, 2009).Mtyh: Race has nothing to do with capital punishment.Fact: The death penalty is used primarily to punish those who kill Euro-Americans. Whites make up roughly half of murder victims nationally, but over 80% of death row inmates are there for the murder of a white victim. A defendant accused of murdering a white victim is more than 3 times as likely to face the death penalty as a defendant accused of the murder of a person of color (David Baldus)...continue to full post

Full post as published by tcask:: on the road (to abolition) on June 01, 2009 (boomark / email).