Should the U.S. Abolish the Death Penalty?

Should the U.S. Abolish the Death Penalty?

The death penalty has provoked heated discussion since biblical times, and today the debate remains as controversial as ever. Is such a sentence ever justified? Capital punishment is an intensely emotional topic for everyone involved because it sits at the intersection of life, death and the very definition of the word 'justice.'

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Regarding Objection
The Death Penalty is NOT a Deterrent
  • thoughtcounts Z
    Poor choice of examples

    Your point is a good one, but using Maine and Vermont as examples against a downtown metropolitan area is misleading. Of course Maine and Vermont will seem safer -- their populations are in general less dense than downtown Houston's. If crime rate and the existence of the death penalty are uncorrelated even when we are controlling for population density, we can't say with certainty that the death penalty is pushing crime rates down.

    - thoughtcounts ZUS September 8, 2008 8:37AM

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