f Texas A&M University came up with thesestatistics, in 1960, there were 56 executions in the United States and 9,140 murders. By 1964, when there were only 15 executions, the number ofmurders had risen to 9,250. In 1969, there were no executions and 14,590murders, and 1975, after six years without executions, 20,510 murdersoccurred. So the number of murders grew as the number of executionsshrank. Spence said: “While some [death penalty] abolitionists try to face down the resultsof their disastrous experiment and still argue to the contrary,the...[data] concludes that a substantial deterrent effect has beenobserved...In six months, more Americans are murdered than havebeen killed by execution in this entire century...Until we begin to fightcrime in earnest [by using the death penalty], every person who dies ata criminal’s hands is a victim of our inaction.”And in Texas, the highest murder rate in Houston (Harris County)occurred in 1981 with 701 murders. Since Texas reinstated the death penaltyin 1982, Harris County has executed more murderers than any other city orstate in the union and has seen the greatest reduction in murder from 701 in1981 down to 261 in 1996 - a 63% reduction, representing a 270%differential.Also, in the 1920s and 30s, death penalty advocates were known torefer to England as a means of proving capital punishment’s deterrent effect. Back then, at least 120 murderers were executed every year in the UnitedStates and sometimes the number reached 200. Even then, England used thedeath penalty far more consistently than we did and their overall murder ratewas smaller than any one of our major cities at the time. Now, since Englandabolished capital punishment about thirty years ago, the murder rate hassubsequently doubled there and 75 English citizens have been murdered byreleased killers.Abolitionists will claim that most studies show that the death penaltyhas no effect on the murder rate at...
