A recent article by Terrence P. Dwyer (pictured), retired New York State Police Investigator, and George F. Kain, a police commissioner in Ridgefield, Connecticut, dismissed the notion that the death penalty is needed to protect law enforcement officers. Dwyer and Kain wrote that a majority of police chiefs believe that the death penalty does not deter violent crime and rank the death penalty last in a list of effective tools for fighting crime. “In states like New York, which abolished its death penalty in 2004, or North Carolina, where there has been a de facto moratorium since 2006, the numbers indicate no statistical increase in police officer homicides after the death penalty was repealed or rendered moot through moratorium,” the authors wrote. They also encouraged lawmakers to weigh the substantial costs of the death penalty in their decision-making. They stated, “The Connecticut death penalty costs $4 million annually, according to a 2009 estimate by the General Assembly’s non-partisan Office of Fiscal Analysis. While capital cases in Connecticut account for just .06 % of cases in the Public Defender’s office, the cost to defend these cases was nearly $3.5 million, over 7 % of the office’s entire budget.”
The article cited polls of police chiefs conducted by the Death Penalty Information Center.
(G. Kain and T. Dwyer, “Why law enforcement supports abolishing the death penalty,” Danbury News Times, April 23, 2011). Read more New Voices. See Costs and Deterrence.
New Voices
Mar 21, 2024
