Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate

Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate by reporter ADAM LIPTAK in the November 18, 2007 New York Times revives the death penalty debate that never ends, but this time in the context of the Supreme Court's pending decision on the constitutionality of lethal injections. However, most of the article refers to new studies that show the death penalty saves lives. As the article states: 

According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented.

The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly.

The studies, performed by economists in the past decade, compare the number of executions in different jurisdictions with homicide rates over time — while trying to eliminate the effects of crime rates, conviction rates and other factors — and say that murder rates tend to fall as executions rise. One influential study looked at 3,054 counties over two decades.

Personally, I do not believe the legal system is close to perfect and for that reason I am against the death penalty in all cases.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein