A Death Penalty Information Center analysis of U.S. murder data from 1987 through 2015 has found no evidence that the death penalty deters murder or protects police. Instead, the evidence shows that murder rates, including murders of police officers, are consistently higher in death-penalty states than in states that have abolished the death penalty. And far from experiencing increases in murder rates or open season on law enforcement, the data show that states that have abolished the death penalty since 2000 have the lowest rates of police officers murdered in the line of duty and that killings of police account for a much smaller percentage of murders in those states.
In a 2017 Discussions With DPIC podcast, “Does Capital Punishment Deter Murder?,” DPIC Fellow Seth Rose and Executive Director Robert Dunham explore the assertions long made by death-penalty proponents that capital punishment advances public safety by deterring murders and by protecting police officers. “There’s no evidence that the death penalty deters murder and there’s no evidence that it protects the police,” Dunham says. “Murder rates may be affected by many things, but the death penalty doesn’t appear to be one of them.” While the rate at which police officers are killed drives the political debate about the death penalty, the numbers suggest that the death penalty makes no measurable contribution to police safety.