Like it or not, it's capital punishment. No punishment, no matter how severe, deters all criminals. It's said that back in the bad old days of public executions in England for crimes like petty theft and pickpocketing, it was common for pickpockets to work the crowds. Obviously, they weren't deterred. Likewise, there are serious criminal penalties today for robbing banks but banks are robbed every day. Obviously, fear of punishment does little to deter those bent on breaking a particular law. However, fear of punishment likely does deter the rest of us from breaking the law, otherwise crime would be a lot more prevalent. Also, not every criminal is willing to break every law. Not all bank robbers become murderers or rapists. Perhaps there is some fear of punishment for those crimes, or perhaps they just aren't driven in that manner.

My growing opposition to capital punishment has nothing to do with whether it deters murderers. That's a strawman argument to me deterrence isn't the primary reason for executing someone - punishment is. Instead, the number of convictions later overturned by DNA evidence is grounds for real concern. We're convicting too many innocent people and sentencing many of them to death. Where there is any reasonable doubt of guilt, an irreversible punishment shouldn't be an option.

I'm not yet convinced that the death penalty is inappropriate in all circumstances. There are some murders where there's absolutely no doubt as to the guilt of the convicted. For example, back in 1988, a man named Richard Farley entered a business in Sunnyvale, CA and started shooting up the place. He killed 7 people and wounded several more. There was all sorts of evidence ranging from eyewitnesses through physical evidence (like his vehicle in the parking lot that had a small arsenal inside). He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death. There is zero doubt of his guilt. Almost 18 years later, Richard Farley still on death row. Why? This case hits home because I was across the street from that business just an hour or so before he went on his killing rampage.