> Published on Friday, September 22, 2000 in the San Francisco Chronicle
>
> States Without Death Penalty Have Lower Homicide Rates
>
> by Raymond Bonner, Ford Fessenden, New York Times
>
> The dozen states that have chosen not to enact the death penalty since
> the Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that it was constitutionally permissible
> have not had higher homicide rates than states with the death penalty,
> statistics and analysis show.
>
> Indeed, 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide
> rates below the national average, FBI data shows, while half the states
> with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average. A
> state-by-state analysis found that during the last 20 years, the
> homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 percent to
> 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.
>
> The Times study also found that homicide rates have risen and fallen
> along roughly symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death
> penalty, suggesting to many experts that the threat of the death penalty
> rarely deters criminals.
>
> ``It is difficult to make the case for any deterrent effect from these
> numbers,'' said Steven Messner, a criminologist at the State University
> of New York at Albany, who reviewed the analysis. ``Whatever the factors
> are that affect change in homicide rates, they don't seem to operate
> differently based on the presence or absence of the death penalty in a
> state.''
>
> That is one of the arguments most frequently made against capital
> punishment in states without the death penalty -- that and the assertion
> that it is difficult to mete out fairly. Opponents also maintain that it
> is too expensive to prosecute and that life without parole is a more
> efficient form of punishment.
>
> Prosecutors and officials in states that have the death penalty are as
> passionate as in states that don't. While they recognize that it is
> difficult to make the case for deterrence, they contend that there are
> powerful reasons to carry out executions. Rehabilitation is ineffective,
> they argue, and capital punishment is often the only penalty that
> matches the heinousness of the crimes committed. Furthermore, they say,
> society has a right to retribution, and the finality of an execution can
> bring closure to victims' families.
>
> Polls indicate that these are the views held by most people. And
> certainly, most states have death penalty statutes. Twelve states have
> chosen otherwise, but their experiences have been largely overlooked in
> recent discussions about capital punishment.
>
> ``I think Michigan made a wise decision 150 years ago,'' said the
> state's Republican governor, John Engler. Michigan abolished the death
> penalty in 1846 and has resisted attempts to reinstate it. ``We're
> pretty proud of the fact that we don't have the death penalty,'' Engler
> said, adding that he is opposed to the death penalty on moral and
> pragmatic grounds.
>
> Engler said he is not swayed by polls that show 60 percent of Michigan
> residents favor the death penalty. He said 100 percent would like not to
> pay taxes.
>
> In addition to Michigan, and its Midwestern neighbors Iowa, Minnesota,
> North Dakota and Wisconsin, the states without the death penalty are
> Alaska, Hawaii, West Virginia, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maine and
> Massachusetts, where an effort to reinstate it was narrowly defeated
> last year.
>
> The homicide rate in North Dakota, which does not have the death
> penalty, was lower than the homicide rate in South Dakota, which does
> have it, according to FBI statistics for 1998. Massachusetts, which
> abolished capital punishment in 1984, has a lower rate than Connecticut,
> which has six people on death row; the homicide rate in West Virginia is
> 30 percent below that of Virginia, which has one of the highest
> execution rates in the country.
>
> Other factors affect homicide rates, of course, including unemployment
> and demographics, as well as the amount of money spent on police,
> prosecutors and prisons.
>
> But the analysis found that the demographic profile of states with the
> death penalty is not far different from that of states without it. The
> poverty rate in states with the death penalty, as a whole, was 13.4
> percent in 1990, compared with 11.4 percent in states without the death
> penalty.
>
> Of the current death row population across the country, 43 percent are
> African Americans, according to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
> Fund Inc.
>
> BC: THE DEATH PENALTY AND HOMICIDE RATES Homicide rates in states with
> the death penalty are higher than in those without, and have shown
> similar up-and-down trends over the years, offering little support to
> the contention that capital punishment is a deterrent. . Death row
> inmates as of July 2000 .
> ORE. 28
> ALA. 184
> ALASKA No Death Penalty
> ARIZ. 120
> ARK. 41
> CALIF. 576
> COLO. 6
> CONN. 6
> DEL. 18
> FLA. 391
> GA. 135
> HAWAII No Death Penalty
> IDAHO 21
> ILL. 168
> IND. 43
> IOWA No Death Penalty
> KAN. 4
> KY. 41
> LA. 91
> ME. No Death Penalty
> MD. 18
> MASS. No Death Penalty
> MICH. No Death Penalty
> MINN No Death Penalty.
> MISS. 63
> MO. 80
> MONT. 6
> NEB. 10
> NEV. 91
> NH 0
> N.J. 17
> NM 5
> NY 5
> NC 232
> ND No Death Penalty
> OHIO 200
> OKLA. 148
> PA. 235
> R.I. No Death Penalty
> SC 70
> SD 3
> TENN. 101
> TEX 455
> UTAH 11
> VA. 29
> VT. No Death Penalty
> WASH. 16
> W. VA. No Death Penalty
> WIS. No Death Penalty
> WYO. 2 .
> -- HOMICIDE RATES
> States with the death penalty(x) .
> -- Highest
> Louisiana 12.8
> Mississippi 11.4
> New Mexico 10.9
> Maryland 10.0
> Nevada 9.7
> -- Lowest
> Massachusetts(x) 2.0
> Iowa(x) 1.9
> New Hampshire 1.5
> South Dakota 1.4
> North Dakota 1.1 .
>
> Sources: Analysis by
> The New York Times (homicide rates); NAACP Legal Defense and Education
> Fund (death row population); National Center for Health Statistics and
> Census Bureau (state homicide rates)