children about drugs and other important issues, however, the governments of the United States are wasting the tax dollars of hard-working citizens, on a policy that isnt effective. The Death Penalty is no longer a deterrent to crime, and that is affecting the citizens of the United States. Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said that she has yet to find any evidence that the death penalty deters crime. "I have inquired for most of my adult life about studies that might show that the death penalty is a deterrent. And I have not seen any research that would substantiate that point," said Reno. The Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that the South repeatedly has the highest murder rate. In 1999, it was the only region with a murder rate above the national rate, and the South accounts for 80% of all executions. The Northeast, which has less than 1% of all executions in the U.S., has the lowest murder rate (DPIC). These facts are undeniable and show that the death penalty does not deter crime. When comparisons are made between states with the death penalty and states without, the majority of death penalty states show murder rates higher than non-death penalty states. The average murder rates per 100,000 populations in 1999 among death penalty states was 5.5, whereas the average of murder rates among non-death penalty states was only 3.6 (DPIC). Whatever the reason, it is obvious that the states that enforce the death penalty are not deterring crime but actually increasing it.The supporters of the death penalty would argue that putting someone to death is actually showing other criminals that it is not worth doing the crime. They would also argue that the death penalty is a fair alternative to what these criminals have done to their victims and their victims families, however these arguments are all false and have no factual base at all. The statistics have already shown that the death penalty does not deter crime but actually h...
