Executions Don't Deter Criminals

That's the title of the latest column by Anne McGraw Reeves in Pennsylvania's Harrisburg Patriot-News.  LINK

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 45 convicted murderers have been executed this year, mostly in Texas.

Pennsylvania soon could carry out its first execution in 10 years. Susan McNaughton, state Corrections Department spokeswoman, said back-to-back executions are scheduled for Dec. 16 and 17, pending any stays.

Gov. Ed Rendell has signed 99 death warrants, but no one has died by lethal injection since July 6, 1999, when Gary Heidnik died for savagely killing two women he had imprisoned in his Philadelphia home.

Heidnik's execution should be Pennsylvania's last. Capital punishment is expensive, archaic and questionable as a deterrent to violent crime.

And:

The death penalty has outlived its usefulness. Let's put it to death.