[Vision2020] Death Penalty Debate

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

I'm still catching up from my weekend conference in Spokane.  For those interested in a draft of my most recent chapter in my book "The Origins of Religious Violence," you can read it at http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/mm.htm.  My reserach disabused me of a lot of unfounded assumptions about Muslims in India. Drafts of other chapters can be read at http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/orv.htm.

I'm just about to sort out material in my death penalty file to prepare my radio commentary for the week, and I will be having lunch in 30 minutes with an expert on criminal justice, but let me just say a few things about the death penalty as deterrence.

The British have a long history of keeping crime statistics, and what one study demonstrated was that when England had the death penalty for dozens of crimes and had quick and public executions, the crime rate went up rather than down. (Violence begats violence and violent emotions.) English crime rates came down only in the 19th Century when theories of criminal justice turned from retribution to rehabilitation because of the influnece of James Mill, Jeremy Bentham, and John Stuart Mill.  As opposed to some easy arm chair philosophizing on this topic, I'll be able to cite some peer reviewed studies on the subject.

I'll post my commentary most likely on Wednesday.  Then off to rafting the Owyhee River on Thursday.

Nick Gier