“That the death penalty, for murder in the commission of armed robbery, each year saves the lives of scores, if not hundreds of victims of such crimes cannot reasonably be doubted by any judge who has had substantial experience at the trial court level with the handling of such persons.” — The Honorable B. Rey Shauer, Justice of the Supreme Court of California¹

The death penalty simply deters criminals and makes law abiding citizens safer in our communities. Sharp’s research numbers might be a little bit off because that study was done in 1997. But Lott’s numbers from his 2007 book, Freedomnomics, taken from studies than span his career, simply mirror the same conclusions. You just can’t hold back universal truths.

The debate on ‘capital punishment’ today is dominated by the people standing in parking lots holding candlelight vigils for criminals sitting on death row. These are the loud fraudulent voices of the of the protestors who belong to anti-death penalty movement. While media rush in to cover their protests, there is a story that they’ve missed.

The culture of lies and deceit so dominates that movement that many of the falsehoods are now wrongly accepted as fact, by both advocates and opponents of capital punishment. We can see other examples of the intellectual dishonesty that pervade the leftist ideology on issues such as Global Warming, Abortion, Taxes, Capitalism, Welfare, etc.

The information presented at the following links demonstrate some of the facts involving the death penalty in America. Even if you are just remotely aware of the public debate on the subject, you will note that every category contradicts the well-worn frauds presented by the anti-death penalty movement. The anti-death penalty movement specializes in the abolition of truth.²

A. THE RISK OF EXECUTING THE INNOCENT
B. THE INCAPACITATION AND THE DETERRENT EFFECTS
C. RACE, SENTENCING AND THE DEATH PENALTY
D. THE COST OF LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE VS THE DEATH PENALTY
E. DEATH PENALTY PROCEDURES
F. CHRISTIANITY AND THE DEATH PENALTY

Death penalty opponents equate execution with murder under the wildly inaccurate misconception that if two acts end with the same result, those two acts are morally equivalent. This is a morally untenable position. Is the legal taking of property to satisfy a debt the same as auto theft? Both result in loss of property. Is killing a terrorist in civilian’s clothing the same as strapping on a bomb vest and killing innocent civilians in an airport? Both result in the death. Are kidnapping and imprisonment or incarceration ordered by a judge the same? Both involve imprisonment against one’s will. Is killing in self defense the same as capital murder? Both end in taking human life. Are rape and making love the same? Both may result in sexual intercourse. One can see how moral relativism gets the relativists into a bind if the supporting premises are scrutinized; the supporting premises are false, resulting in a ‘bad’ ‘invalid’ argument.

Opponents’ flawed logic and moral confusion mirror their “factual” arguments. Some equate the American death penalty with the Nazi holocaust. Opponents see no moral distinction between the slaughter of 12 million totally innocent men, women and children and the just execution of society’s worst human rights violators: serial criminals, murderers, sexual deviants, pedophiles and rapists.

Research by Economists since the Mid-1990s on the Death Penalty

Reference Lott, J. (2007) Freedomnomics, p. 136.³ He also includes a few studies that are non refereed, but I think you get the point.

Cost of Life without Parole cases in comparison to Death Penalty cases

Death penalty up-front costs are higher than LWOP, but as time passes, equivalent LWOP cases are much more expensive - from $1.2 to $3.6 million - than death penalty cases. Opponents ludicrously claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more than LWOP.

I think this last chart pretty much says it all, also from Lott’s 2007 book, Freedomnomics p. 135⁹:

Note: the left hand side is blurred from the scan. It reads: Murder rate per 100,000 people and Execution Rate per 1,000 Murders.

Leftist argument cannot stand up to empirical evidence. That is something that reading Horowitz has taught me, and studies like these have punctuated.

Gun control advocates predicted that when the federal assault-weapons ban expired in 2004, gun crimes would explode. Sarah Brady warned that the expiration of the ban would “arm our kids with Uzis and AK-46’s” and “fill our streets with weapons.”¹⁰ Legislation Conceived in Darkness Senator Charles Schumer labeled banned guns “weapons of choice for terrorists.”¹¹

But according to FBI stats, during 2004, the murder rate nationwide fell by 3%, the first drop since 2000, with firearm deaths dropping 4.4%. Even more remarkable, the monthly murder rate FELL after the assault weapons ban expired. And not only did it fall, it plummeted 14% from August through December.¹² The murder rate in the states with their own bans declined by a smaller amount than the forty-three states without those laws. An average drop of 2% in states with bans compared to 3.4% in states without them. It is readily apparent that the assault weapons ban did nothing whatsoever to deter crime.¹³¹⁴

1. Sharp, D. Legislation. Justice for all. at prodeathpenalty.com[back]
2. Sharp, D. (January 10, 1997). Death Penalty and Sentencing Information. Justice for All at prodeathpenalty.com[back]
3. Lott, J (2007). Freedomnomics: why the free market works and other half-baked theories don’t. p.136. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc..[back]
4. Sharp, D. (January 10, 1997). Death Penalty and Sentencing Information. Justice for All at prodeathpenalty.com. The $34,200 is conservative, if TIME Magazine’s (2/7/94) research is accurate. TIME found that, nationwide, the average cell cost is $24,000/yr. and the maximum security cell cost is $75,000/yr. (as of 12/95). Opponents claim that LWOP should replace the DP. Therefore, any cost calculations should be based specifically on cell costs for criminals who have committed the exact same category of offense - in other words, cost comparisons are valid only if you compare the costs of DP-equivalent LWOP cases to the cost of DP cases. The $34,200/yr. cell cost assumes that only 20% of the DP-equivalent LWOP cases would be in maximum security cost cells and that 80% of the DP-equivalent LWOP cases would be in average cost cells. A very conservative estimate. The $60,000/yr., for those on death row, assumes that such cells will average a cost equal to 80% of the $75,000/yr. for the most expensive maximum security cells. A very high estimate. Even though we are calculating a 75% greater cell cost for the DP than for equivalent LWOP cases, equivalent LWOP cases appear to be significantly more expensive, over time, than their DP counterparts. For years, opponents have improperly compared the cost of all LWOP cases to DP cases, when only the DP equivalent LWOP cases are relevant.[back]
5. Sharp, D. (January 10, 1997). Death Penalty and Sentencing Information. Justice for All at prodeathpenalty.com. U.S. Vital Statistics Abstract, 1994 and Capital Punishment 1995, BJS 1996.[back]
6. Sharp, D. (January 10, 1997). Death Penalty and Sentencing Information. Justice for All at prodeathpenalty.com. Annual cost increases are based upon: 1) historical increases in prison costs, including judicial decisions regarding prison conditions, and the national inflation rate; 2) medical costs, including the immense cost of geriatric care, associated with real LWOP sentences; 3) injury or death to the inmate by violence; 4) injury or death to others caused by the inmate (3 and 4 anticipate no DP and that prisoners, not fearing additional punishment, other than loss of privileges, may increase the likelihood of violence. One could make the same assumptions regarding those on death row. The difference is that death row inmates will average 6 years incarceration vs. 50 years projected for LWOP); 5) the risk and the perceived risk of escape; and 6) the justifiable lack of confidence by the populace in our legislators, governors, parole boards and judges, i.e. a violent inmate will be released upon society.[back]
7. Sharp, D. (January 10, 1997). Death Penalty and Sentencing Information. Justice for All at prodeathpenalty.com. $75,000 for trial and appeals cost, for DP-equivalent LWOP cases, assumes that the DP is not an option. We believe this cost estimate is very low. We have over-estimated that DP cases will cost twenty times more, on average, or $1.5 million. Our exaggerated estimate states that the DP will have twenty times more investigation cost, defense and prosecution cost, including voir dire, court time, guilt/innocence stage, sentencing stage and appellate review time and cost than DP equivalent LWOP cases. Even though we have greatly exaggerated the cost of DP cases, DP cases still prove to be significantly less expensive, over time, than the DP equivalent LWOP cases.[back]
8. Sharp, D. (January 10, 1997). Death Penalty and Sentencing Information. Justice for All at prodeathpenalty.com. 6 years on death row, prior to execution, reflects the new habeas corpus reform laws, at both the state and federal levels. Some anti-death penalty groups speculate that such time may actually become only 4 years. If so, then DP cases would cost even that much less than the DP equivalent LWOP cases. However, the average time on death row, for those executed from 1973-1994, was 8 years (Capital Punishment 1994, BJS, 1995). Therefore, 6 years seems more likely. Even using the 8 year average, the DP equivalent LWOP cases are still $1 million more expensive than their DP counterparts ($2 million @ 2% annual increase).

   One of the USA’s largest death rows is in Texas, with 442 inmates, of which 229, or 52%, have been on death row over 6 years - 44, or 10%, have been on for over 15 years, 8 for over 20 years. 60 inmates, nationwide, have been on death row over 18 years. (as of 12/96).

   NOTE - 10/19/00 - We received a post which located a flaw within our cost evaluation. The reader stated that we should “present value” all the costs of both a life sentence and the death penalty and that, if we do so, a life sentence is cheaper than a death sentence. Using the numbers in our analysis, such is a good point.

   It should be noted that we were intentionally generous in minimizing life costs within our analysis. Please review we have not included

   1)the recent studies on geriatric care at about $70,000/year/prisoner in today’s dollars , or

   2) the recent explosion of Hepatitis C and AIDS within the prison system, or

   3) the cost savings to jurisdictions based on plea bargains to maximum life sentences, which can only occur due solely to the presence of the death penalty. Such should accrue as a cost benefit of the death penalty, and

   4) none of the above have been included in our cost analysis. All of which either increase the cost of a life sentence or accrue as a cost credit to the death penalty, and

   5) And we have been extremely generous to the anti death penalty position with our numbers to begin with. I suspect that an average life without parole sentence costs closer to $150,000-$300,000, for all pre-trial, trial and appeals, as opposed to the $75,000 used in our study.

   Those omissions should not be considered a balancing, because accuracy is paramount. There is no cost study which fully evaluates all of those issues. We hope to update the data at some point with a more thorough review.[back]

9. Lott, J (2007). Freedomnomics: why the free market works and other half-baked theories don’t. p.135. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc..[back]
10. Lott, J. & Blase, B. (September, 20, 2004). Sun Sets on Assault Weapons Ban, Midas Resources.[back]
11. Lott, J. (October 28, 2005). “Hype and Reality”. Washington Times.[back]
12. Lott, J (2007). Freedomnomics: why the free market works and other half-baked theories don’t. p.242. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc. During the same months in 2003 the murder rate fell only 1%.[back]
13. Lott, J (2007). Freedomnomics: why the free market works and other half-baked theories don’t. p.148. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc..[back]
14. Transcript from CNN’s American Morning, September 8, 2004 (here).[back]