Caucasians and African-Americans. This is untrue because 46.14 percent of death row inmates are Caucasians (wwwl.ncpa.org/ea/eama87a.html).Public opinion of the death penalty generally supports it. When Americans were asked if they favored the death penalty for murder convicts, 68 percent said yes (Gallup Poll, www.pollingreport.com). An ABC News Poll asked if the death penalty is fair because killers can not kill again, 72 percent agreed. Even when given life with no parole as an alternative, the majority of those polled by ABC News/Washington Post in April 2001, answered that they prefer the death penalty. Moreover, in 1976, the United States Supreme Court declared the death penalty constitutional (www.thepubliccause.net/deathpenalty.html#supremecourtdeathpenaltydecisions).Another reason to utilize the death penalty is to prevent criminals from escaping prison. To incapacitate these nefarious inmates prevents them from causing further harm to society. In March 2001, Lee John Knoch and Aaron OHara, both 23 years old, escaped the Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon. OHara, who was captured by authorities, is serving a six-year sentence for sodomy, sex abuse, and two counts of rape. Knoch was not caught and had been serving life with no parole for his 1998 conviction of five counts of aggravated murder and charges of assault, kidnapping, theft by extortion, and harassment (www.prodeathpenalty.com). Knochs escape could have been prevented had he been sentenced with the death penalty and placed on death row.The death penalty could have prevented additional crimes as well. In the August 30, 1990 issue of The New American Magazine, Murders That Could Have Been Averted By Capital Punishment:On December 7, 1984 Benny Lee Chaffin kidnapped, raped, and murdered a nine-year-old Springfield, Oregon girl. He had been convicted of murder once before in Texas, but not executed. Incredibly, the same jury that convicted him for ...
