OPINION: Time to abolish the death penalty?

LIKE other issues - abortion, guns, voting rights - reactions to the issue of the death penalty are often argued more out of passion and emotion than logic.

I found it interesting to come across an article about a family who lost a loved one to murder actually arguing AGAINST the death penalty:

Families of murder victims urge Virginia lawmakers to abolish the death penalty


FOR ME - the death penalty is about revenge, not justice, especially considering how many people in the U.S. have been executed who were later found innocent:

Many others were put on death row and later found not guilty:

The death penalty does not even act as a deterrent as it has claimed to be:
The researchers compared murder rates in the ten years after abolition of the death penalty to the baseline rate in the year of abolition. Six of the abolitionist countries experienced murder rates below the baseline all ten years following abolition. Four countries had either one or two years in which murder rates were higher than in the year of abolition, but saw murders fall below the baseline within five years and experienced overall downward trends. Only one country in the study, Georgia, saw murder rates trend upwards in the decade following abolition. One decade after abolition, the murder rates in these countries declined by an average of six murders per 100,000 population. The authors conclude, “Death penalty advocates’ fears that the state relinquishing the ultimate punishment will embolden potential criminals, or at least weaken deterrence, prove to be unfounded in light of this evidence.”

Even in the United States:

Murder Rate of Death Penalty States Compared to Non-Death Penalty States


How states are slowly getting rid of the death penalty

YET: this same link shows that STILL to this day, the majority of Americans favor the death penalty:
In 1996, 18 percent of American opposed the death penalty for people convicted of murder, and 78 percent were in favor of it. Now, 39 percent oppose it, while 54 percent support it.

SINCE the issue of the death penalty - like so many other issues - is a deeply personal one, and a deeply emotional one, please state YOUR case if you are still in support of the death penalty.

Please - everyone be respectful of other's opinions even if you disagree with them.




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