The Death Penalty: To Be Or Not To Be...

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Although the media have played an important role in raising the
public's awareness of lawlessness, crime in America is far from a media -
created phenomenon. Government statistics support the image of a nation
which has overwhelmingly lost the war against crime. For instance, in 1960
there were 161 reported violent crimes per 100,000 people By 1992, the
figure had jumped to 758 per 100,000 -- a rise of over 350 %.
More and more people today are starting to think that something is
terribly wrong when a modern, civilized nation must confront statistics
like these. The American public is demanding an end to this violence, and
surveys show that they believe swift and harsh punishment is the most
appropriate and effective means to these ends.
The death penalty, or as it is sometimes being called " capital
punishment " is the hardest punishment that could be received when a person
is convicted of a capital offense. Until recently it did not exist in New
York State but ...

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media
and from the results of numerous surveys, a quite large number of people
who supported George Pataki, were doing that mainly because of this part of
his program.
But does having a death penalty law actually help keeping the crime
rates down? The answer is in the statistics: it turns out that the violent
crime rates in New York State did not go down for the past year since the
death penalty law was in effect. Another thing that would surprise those
who support death penalty is it's price. The fact is: each death penalty
case costs about 2.3 million dollars. That is three times more than a price
for keeping a person in a prison for the rest of his life. Here is what ...

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