Pro Death Penalty

Although the issue is still hotly debated, there is no scientific evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder or that it results in lower homicide rates. (Zimring, 79) Attempts to correlate capital punishment statutes or actual executions to murder rates have been unsuccessful. (Walker et al, 14) The United States is the only industrialized democracy using capital punishment and has far higher rates of homicide than any of these nations. (Kennedy, 23) Among U.S. states, most that abolished capital punishment have low murder rates, although Alaska and Michigan have relatively high levels of murder. Texas executes ...