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Is the Death Penalty and effective deterrent to crime? Indeed it is. "How so", do you ask. "How does taking the life of the criminal resonate as fair treatment"? you argue.

The secret that those who oppose terminating the life of a violent killer don't want you to know is that it does provide noticeable decreases in the number of violent crimes wherever it is "effectively" administered.

I use the word "effectively" in conjunction with capital punishment for a very simple reason. Most states do not utilize the aforementioned penalty effectively. I person assigned to execution and death row can wait for 10, 20, even 25 years sometimes before that sentence is carried out. That is not effective, that is pure hypocrisy. The person who is to be executed has to have committed a crime which usually consisted of extreme brutality and pre-meditation. They thought about the crime, they perhaps fantasized about it, they planned it out in detail, and than carried it out. Oftentimes the victims were completely un-aware that their lives were about to be ended, in many cases after much agonizing suffering and pain.

We are obligated in this country by our refusal to allow "cruel and unusual punishment" to provide a quick, relatively pain-free death experience for these individuals for whom the taking of an Innocent life meant so little. But when done effectively, with minimum wait times and proper public exposure, others who may be thinking about similar criminal activity just may think twice, or even three times, before deciding the end does not justify the action about to be taken. Is that not the measure of a deterrent.

If even one life is saved, if even one potentially violent subject retreats from performing violence because of the knowledge of the consequences of those actions, than Capital Punishment as a deterrent has served it's purpose. Have we as a society become so calloused to death and suffering that it is acceptable to us to show compassion for someone for whom compassion is not a word in their vocabulary. Should we show compassion to a violent killer and demean the life of an innocent victim and their families in the name of compassion for a killer. What does it say about the state of the Republic when we give a free ride for life in a prison cell to someone who without care or compunction took the life of an innocent citizen of the Republic.

As a deterrent, the death penalties effectiveness is evident if it saves even one sacred life. That is the measure after all of a deterrent.

Learn more about this author, Larry Head.
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