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Here in sunny Western PA we have a disturbing abundance of far-right
demagogues on the radio, all of whom place the blame for all the ills of
society--from the possibility of a dirty bomb to the heartbreak of
psoriasis-- squarely upon Liberals. I can handle that, since the zealots'
facts and reasoning are usually so obvious that there's no need to get
ruffled about their invective, but the other day one of them raised what
sounded, to me, like an interesting point regarding capital punishment.
Ordinarily he's little more than a caricature, and on any given day he still
spends more time griping about Clinton's cigar than about any significant
current issues. Anyway...
We've all heard and/or read about the reports that blast capital
punishment as a deterrent and find no correlation between the availability
of the death penalty and a lower incidence of capital crimes. But the
demagogue asserted that the oft-cited [insert anti-Liberal slur here] study
was based on incomplete data and is therefore invalid. Specifically, he
claimed that the study excluded data from New York and Texas (not sure if he
said Texas or some other state), and further that not all of the states that
permitted the death penalty actually made use of it. Therefore, according
to the radio guy, the information doesn't represent a valid cross-section of
a society that employs capital punishment as a deterrent measure.
Regardless of one's own views on capital punishment, it seems like bad
methodology to base one's report (and, therefore, argument) upon
deliberately gerrymandered data in this fashion. Can anyone verify this
info? I'd hate to think the goofy propagandist might be correct, but I
don't have solid data to oppose him.
Thanks for any insights you care to provide!
Dave!
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Capital Ideas
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| In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Dave Schuler writes: Can anyone verify this (...) Can't help you there, but here's an interesting argument regarding capital punishment- Most murders occur in conjection with other crimes (theft, rape, etc). If a criminal (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jun-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: Capital Ideas
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| (...) I expect there are a great deal of studies which prove it works, and just as many which prove it does not. Personally, I think that is irrelevant. I oppose it as: a) I think it is immoral. b) Justice is always subject to human error. c) I (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jun-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
| | | Re: Capital Ideas
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| (...) Excluding Texas would probably work to his advantage: I believe Texas has the highest murder rate along with the highest execution rate. Either capital punishment has little effect, or Texas would soon be laid waste without it (one must test (...) (22 years ago, 26-Jun-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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