Jonnie_Wolfy_is_Nutz's Blog

Jonnie_Wolfy_is_Nutz

Bio: The deterrence effect of the death penalty is unprovable. Who can tell how many potential murders were avoided from someone who thought about killing a cop or raping-and-killing a child but stopped themselves when considering the penalty? It is something that cannot be researched or proven. And if the threat of death by the state stopped a single murder from occurring, isn't that a deterrent for N=1? Regardless of the other issues surrounding the death penalty debate (what if an innocent is wrongly-convicted, what evidence is "beyond a reasonable doubt", etc. -- these ARE useful discussions, but distinct from the deterrence issue) the logical fact is that there can be no "proof" that the death penalty is not a deterrent for premeditated murder. And it's especially careless to show aggregate figures, like the percentage of murders in non-death-penalty states vs. death-penalty states. That means nothing and proves nothing so stopping broadcasting those types of statistics.