Death Penalty Deters Murders, Studies Say

[John Dibble]

Not buying it. There's about 5 homicides in North Dakota a year. Does that mean if ND had the death penalty, it would have no homicides ever year it executed someone?

Unlikely - murders deterred by the death penalty would more than likely be ones that are premeditated, meaning people who are in their 'right' state of mind and not a highly emotional one. I'd be willing to be that most of those 5 homicides a year are crimes of passion. Given that North Dakota's demographics are different from a highly populated state like New York or California, it's not exactly valid to apply how this would affect North Dakota to the policy of other states.

[John Dibble]

Plus, since when did Libertarians advocate for capital punishment?

It's never exactly a cornerstone of libertarian philosophy either way AFAIK - some libertarians support it, and some don't, while others just don't care.

[John Dibble]

"It didn't deter people from picking up machetes to slaughter their fellows - that's why we are not bothered by its removal," said Theodore Simburudali, president of the Ibuka genocide survivors' group.

Methinks that genocide isn't the type of murder this study or any other death penalty study is talking about.

[John Dibble]

And ? What else than murder is genocide ? Ruandas executions before the genocide didn´t prevent the genocide, meaning the death penalty has no impact on those who comitted the genocide.

*sigh* These studies are applied to domestic murder, not war crime murders. I'd think that meaning would have been clear. The Rwandan genocide occured during a civil war, and considering that during such a war the law is heavily in question it is hardly a valid case when considering domestic murders in times of peace. I doubt those who commited the genocide believed that they would be prosecuted for it as they believed they would be the winners and they would be the ones making the laws afterwards, unlike those who would commit murder during peacetimes when the government is stable.

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During crimes of passion you don't generally think about it, but if you are doing a premeditated murder you generally think about the aftermath unless you're particularly stupid - why do you think people often try to hide the body or make it look like an accident? People do care about consequences, which is why a lot of people don't commit crimes that they otherwise might. Now whether the death penalty is an effective deterrent or not is up for debate, and frankly I'm not too terribly invested in it, but I can at least recognize the difference between types of situations.