[pleikumud]

Death by hanging would deter even more.

[R.W.Ratikal]

The murder rate was lowest in the U. S. during the early part of the last century. The great fear of criminals was of going to the “hot seat,” the electric chair. It was fear of the electric chair that made bank robbers careful not to shoot anyone during bank robberies.

When the Supreme Court declared the death penalty in most states unconstitutional in the Seventies; the murder rate shot up and has continued to grow every year since. Today there are over 35,000 homicides annually

That evidence is published every year in the FBI Crime Report. What does the history of the death penalty tell l an intelligent, rational person about the death penalty?