States without the death penalty have lower murder rates than states with.
If you live in a state where serious crime rarely happens.. you are far more likely to be against serious punishment. But when you are afraid to leave your home for fear of being murdered... you tend to embrace capital punishment.
Capital punishment is justice, nothing more or less.
I found a “violent crime” ranking from the census bureau.
Michigan ranks 10th.
Rhode Island 44th.
Wisconsin 32nd.
Maine 50th.
Minnesota 30th.
Massachusetts 20th.
Alaska 6th.
Hawaii 36th.
Vermont 48th.
West Virgina 39th.
Iowa 33rd.
D.C., if it were a state, would be #1.
North Dakota is 49th.
New York is 22nd.
New Jersey is 26th.
New Mexico is 9th.
Illinois is 13th.
source: http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank21.html
I haven’t done thorough analysis, but I can offer some thoughts on at least SOME of these states and why they may have a lower “violent crime” rate...and it really doesn’t have much to do with the absence of a death penalty.
Michigan, Illinois and Massachusetts have HUGE metropolitan areas in Detroit, Chicago and Boston. Those places typically have more violent crime than rural places...thus their higher rankings. D.C. is its own cesspool.
I must admit a couple of quandries...Alaska and New Mexico seem strangely high. My guess is that much of the violent crime there is committed by native populations (Eskimos/Indians?)...but that is only a guess.
The rest of the states, generally speaking, are far north states with low populations that typically ALREADY DON’T have high crime rates. Passing a “no death penalty” in these places would be kind of like saying a “no smoking” policy at an Iron Lung Ward is responsible for the low cancer rate among the residents. :)
Just my thoughts.