Effective or Not?

The Article, “Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate “, published by Adam Liptak examines the relationship between the death penalty and the crime rates. It is focused towards the public trying to reason whether or not the death penalty is justifiable or not. The article mentions multiple opinions throughout the article, so it is hard to identify the author’s true opinion and where he stands on the issue. He mentions however that some research has shown that the more executions that have taken place, the more the crime rate has decreased. He also reveals that many experts also say that there are far too little executions for data to prove that theory.

Liptak then discusses the expense of following through with the death penalty. Justin Wolfers, an economist, states that money should not be spent on the lethal injection, and rather the money should be focused towards other causes, such as the prevention of crime, which he suggests would have a greater impact. Liptak identifies his point that there is not sufficient data to determine whether the death penalty is effective or not.

This article was written in 2006, so there has been more research done, but with such a small amount of executions performed, the article states about 1 in 300 homicides result in the death penalty, so it is still hard to tell whether the death penalty prevents other crimes due to a lack of evidence.

I believe that the death penalty probably does not significantly change the crime rate because the crazy people out there do not question whether or not to kill someone based off the fact that they may get the death penalty. I also agree with the fact that the death penalty is quite expensive, but also maybe necessary in certain cases.  If people continue to kill, the price of the death penalty is less than multiple lives that may have been prevented. Some also may suggest life imprisonment, but taxpayers also pay for the guilty to live their lives under a federal or state roof.

Liptak is writing to question the public on whether or not the death penalty is efficient or not and should people consider different options. Should the United States reconsider the death penalty due to its effectiveness or ineffectiveness?

Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/us/18deter.html