Historically, many conservatives have supported the death penalty based on a belief that capital punishment prevents future crime.
The reality is that no credible evidence exists to support the claim that the death penalty deters murder. In fact, states that have the death penalty have a higher murder rate than states that do not.
In NC, the best evidence disputing the deterrence argument is the fact that the crime rate continues to drop, despite the fact that executions have been on hold in NC since August 2006. The state’s murder rate went down 4% from 2012 to 2013, despite a rapidly growing population.
The consistent drop in crime rate through each of the 8 years executions have been on hold begs the question – why does NC continue to waste millions of dollars a year to sustain a system that clearly does not keep us safer?
