Capital Punishment Saves Lives

Every execution of a convicted murderer results in about 18 fewer murders. Increased arrests and convictions also reduce the number of murders. On the average:

• A one percent increase in arrests of murderers results in about 250 fewer murders.

• A one percent increase in convictions of murderers results in about 105 fewer murders.

Capital punishment reduces the number of murders because it discourages potential murderers from committing the crime. When criminals believe that arrest, conviction and execution are more likely, they commit fewer homicides.

• Of the approximately 20,000 murders committed each year in the United States, only 38 percent result in a conviction.

• Only one-tenth of one percent result in execution.

The first scholarly study of the effects of capital punishment on the murder rate was done in 1975. The study was introduced in argument before the Supreme Court in the case of Gregg v. Georgia, which upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment.

The latest study shows that the deterrent effect of capital punishment is more than twice as strong as the 1975 study found. --DRH