Why the Death Penalty: Capital sentences, when carried out, save innocent lives by permanently incapacitating murderers. Some persons who commit capital homicide will slay other innocent persons if given the opportunity to do so. The death penalty is the most effective means of preventing such killers from repeating their crimes. The next most serious penalty, life imprisonment without possibility of parole, prevents murderers from committing some crimes but does not prevent them from murdering in prison. At least five federal prison officers have been killed since December 1982, and the inmates in at least three of the incidents were already serving life sentences for murder. For example, in the federal government's maximum security institution in Marion, Illinois, two experienced correctional officers were murdered in separate incidents on October 22, 1983. Officer Clutts died in an unprovoked, vicious assault when stabbed approximately 40 times with a homemade knife by inmate Thomas Silverstein. At the time, Silverstein was being supervised by three correctional officers. Silverstein had already murdered three inmates while in federal custody, for which he received three life sentences. "Officer Hoffman" was murdered by prisoner Clay Fountain. Fountain managed to slip off his handcuffs and stab one of the three officers escorting him back to his cell. The other two officers rushed in. One of these officers was injured and the other, Officer Hoffman, was killed attempting to protect his fallen comrade. Following this unprovoked, brutal stabbing, inmate Fountain waved his arms in a victory expression as he walked down the cell ranges in front of other inmates. This inmate was serving a life sentence for the murder of a staff sergeant while in the United States Marines. He had repeatedly engaged in extremely violent acts, including the murders of inmates in 1979, 1981, and 1982. He was serving three life sentences at the time he murdered Officer Fountain. Some killers are also paroled, only to kill again. For instance, Eddie Simon Wein was sentenced to death in Los Angeles Superior Court in 1957. Instead of being executed, he was released from prison in 1975 to live in West Los Angeles. Within months, he began to attack and kill women in the area. Fortunately for other potential victims, his apprehension was swift. He was convicted in 1976 of first degree murder on one woman, attempted murder of another, and numerous sexual offenses. The woman who was killed by Wein and the women who were scarred by him for life would not have been victims if Wein had been executed as originally decreed. Here the death penalty would have saved an innocent life. Statistics prove that his is not just an isolated example. Out of a sample of 164 paroled Georgia murderers, eight committed subsequent murders within seven years of release. A study of twenty Oregon murderers released on parole in 1979 found that one (i.e., five percent) had committed a subsequent homicide within five years of release. Another study found that of 11,404 persons originally convicted of "willful homicide" and released during 1965 and 1974, 34 were returned to prison for commission of a subsequent criminal homicide during the first year alone. Of course, these figures reflect recidivism by murderers in general, not the presumptively more dangerous population of capital murderers. While it is impossible to determine precisely how many innocent lives the execution of convicted murderers has saved, the available data suggest that the number is not insignificant. Of the roughly 52,000 state prison inmates serving time for murder in 1984, an estimated 810 had previously been convicted of murder and had killed 821 persons following those convictions. Execution each of these inmates following their initial murder conviction would have saved 821 innocent lives. Of course, since only a fraction of convicted murderers receive the death penalty, the number of innocent lives would be substantially smaller. Our data published in 1988 suggest a conservative estimate of at least 24 innocent lives saved just in the last few decades from the incapacitative effect of capital sentences, more than the total number of "innocent" defendants that Bedau and Radelet claim have been executed in this century.* Life is not enough, because they have nothing better to do and, will kill again. Read Professor Paul Cassell's full report Click Here Professor Paul Cassell's Web Site | 