Did the three strikes law adopted by several states bring a halt to crime waves that swept U.S cities in the eighties?

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• Even so, the three strikes law has taken many violent felons off the street leaving two strikers shaking in their boots!

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  by -O-uknow on February 8th, 2010

• Well, that's highly debatable. The death penalty was instituted with
  intent to deter murder--that hasn't stopped people from killing.

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  by buttman on February 9th, 2010

• I disagree. The death penalty was instituted as appropriate punishment to fit the crime. Not to scare those who have committed none. That happens by default and is not meant to deter which is a flawed perception by those who oppose it.

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  by -O-uknow on February 9th, 2010

• No, that's not a "flawed perception." Death penalty [laws] falsely
  convince the public that the "government has taken efective measures
  to combat crime, and that each execution [deters] a certain number of murders." Don't unscrupulous murderers deserve to die? I don't know--they probably do. In general, as you pointed out, the punishment should fit the crime, but in civilized society we reject
  the "eye for an eye" principle of literally doing to criminals what
  they do to their victims. We don't rape a criminal because he raped
  someone. We don't burn down the house of an arsenist as a form of a
  punishment. Moreover, a study published in the Stanford Law Review
  documents 350 capital convictions in this century, in which it was
  later proven that the convict hadn't committed the crime. Of those, 25 convicts were executed while others spent decades of their lives in prison. Based to your premise, it is assumed that the death penalty is reserved for those who committed the most heinous crimes, but in reality, only a small percentage of death-sentenced
  inmates were convicted of unusually vicious crimes. The vast majority of individuals facing execution were convicted of crimes
  that are indistinguishable from crimes committed by others who are
  serving prison sentences, crimes such as murder committed in the course of an armed robbery. The only distinguishing factors seem to be race and poverty. In fact, some observers have pointed out that
  the term "capital punishment" is ironic because "only those without capital get the punishment."

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  by buttman on February 9th, 2010

• The inconsistencies you point out is an argument for the overhaul of death penalty sentencing. Not its elimination.

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  by -O-uknow on February 10th, 2010