Some Death Penalty Stats:

-10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average, Federal Bureau of Investigation data shows, while half the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above the national average

-In a state-by- state analysis, The Times found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without the death penalty.

-To keep an inmate in a high security prison for 40 years costs just under $1,000,000. Executions commonly cost three to seven times that amount, mostly for the two-trial, two-attorney phase which cannot be eliminated even with the recent weakening of habeas corpus protections.

-Death penalty cases also clog the courts. The California Supreme Court spends more than half its time reviewing death penalty cases.11 The Florida Supreme Court spends about 80 percent of its time on capital punishment cases.12

-By 1988, Florida had spent $57.2 million on 10 executions, yet had to release 3,000 prisoners early because of a $45 million budget cut. Similarly, although Texas spent $183.2 million for six years on the death penalty, the state can only afford to hold the rest of its prisoners for 20 percent of their time.

I'm not screaming racism with the following but I did find them interesting:

-Because of the unfettered discretion given to prosecutors, judges, juries and governors, minorities are far more likely to be executed than whites. Fifty-three percent of the people executed between 1930 and 1990 were black, even though blacks make up only 12 percent of the population.17

A convicted murderer is also more likely to be executed if his or her victim was white. About 50 percent of American murder victims since 1977 have been black.18 Yet 82 percent of all capital cases involved white victims.19

Since 1976, nationally 85 executions were carried out involving black defendants and white victims, while only 4 white defendants have been executed for killing black victims


-Demosthenes

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"A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower