Ernest van den Haag
About the author: Ernest van den Haag is the retired John M. Olin Professor of Jurisprudence and Public Policy at Fordham University in New York City.
A study of the effects of executions on the murder rate has concluded that every execution of a murderer deters, on average, eighteen murders that would have occurred without it. The same study has also concluded that a small (1 percent) increase in murder convictions would deter 105 murders. Researchers have not yet proven conclusively that capital punishment either is or is not a more effective deterrent than life imprisonment. But even if an execution has only a small chance of deterring future murders, the murderer should be executed because he has, through his crime, forfeited his life. Capital punishment satisfies justice, and the fact that it may also save lives is enough to favor the.....
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