od bit of confirmation for retentionists comesfrom Dr. Nicholas Fabian. In his essay A Review of Capital Punishment,he relays the following example: With unfailing regularity, theopponents of capital punishment will quote recent statistical data whichindicates there is no decline in murder rate after the introduction of thedeath penalty. So lets isolate the problem. Assume there are two peopleliving on an island. Number One murders Number Two, and for thatcrime, Number One, the murderer is executed. The application of capitalpunishment guarantees, with 100% certainty, that all crime on the islandwill be deterred. As the population of the island increases, the certaintyfactor of deterred crime decreases. With the popualtion of 1,000 thecertainty value is one in 1,000, Dan with ten million is 1/10,000,000. Inthis case, eliminating one member of a large sample is not, and cannotbe, statistically significant. This is how the opponents of capitalpunishment view the stats (Fabian 1-2).One thing is for sure. Whether or not capital punishment deterscrime in the witness and population, it deters the executed criminal fromcommitting future crimes. By doing so, it also stands as a warning to all,and makes them yearn for a future or their own, unlike the executed.What are the stands on morality and justice?Since the death penalty is such a contestable issue, morality is abig thing within.For abolitionists, a persons life is sacred. By taking human life inpunishment, they believe this action cheapens it. They do believe that itmight be necessary to kill someone in the case of battle, in self-defense,or to protect another person. They do not accept the notion that it isneeded to kill criminals when there are other ways like life in prisonwithout perol. Even in the case of terrorism, they stand strong in beliefthat human life is consecrated and should be treated as such unless Goddirects otherwise (Kronenwetter 31). To some abolition...
