The fact of this matter is that the majority of the people who do commit these crimes are not very logical at the time of the offense. There are a great number of murder cases, in which the killer was under the influence of drugs or alcohol, psychologically distressed, in emotional turmoil, or in some way or another unable to control their own behavior (Clear & Cole 517). In cases such as these, the idea of capital punishment, let alone any other form of punishment at all, have not even entered the mind of the criminal. There have been numerous studies done to attempt to prove that the death penalty is actually a deterrent, however all of the evidence gathered on the subject makes it hard to be confident that this form of punishment deters any more than a life sentence in prison does (Cavanagh 4). In fact, a comparison of the murder rates in states with the death penalty and states without the death penalty reveals that the states with capital punishment have murder rates twice as high. In addition, our societys growing humanitarianism has curbed the number of executions greatly over the past fifty years. The decline in the use of this punishment creates a situation, in which the penalty ceases to be deterrent, because people believe that they can get away with the crime and go unpunished. Moreover, the less that the death sentenced is used, the more society views it as unusual. This view conflicts with the eighth amendment banning the practice of cruel and unusual punishments, which essentially leads to a paradox. The less society actually utilizes the death penalty, the less society can legally use it. The end result is a punishment, which ceases to deter any crime at all (Sellin 35). The key part of the death penalty is that it involves death. This creates a dilemma of morality and a major problem when there continue to be many instances of innocent people being sentenced to death. According to a 1987 study, 23 people who were innoc...
