Friday, January 28, 2005

The death penalty is a deterrent.

Texas has executed more people since 1976 than the next five states combined. So it should come as no surprise that between 2002 and 2003, Texas' murder rate increased 8.6 percent. After all, the death penalty is a deterrent.

Ooops....wait, we got that backwards. The death penalty obviously is not a deterrent. But if you are a supporter of the death penalty and you just googled the words, "The death penalty is a deterrent," then we got you, didn't we? :)

Thanks to Grits For Breakfast for pointing out this statistic to us.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Of course, Texas has it backwards - the death penalty is NEVER a deterrent. But then they can't even get innocence or guilt right so what do you expect them to do?

Anonymous said...

Umm.. what a poor argument. Why did you pick 2002 to 2003 to make your point? Could it be that any other selection wouldn't have supported your theory. Great way to selectively use the evidence.

Since Texas has executed more people since 1976 than the next five states combined why don't you tell us what the murder rate in Texas has done since 1976?