Yes, the death penalty does discourage recindivism (sp?). Once he or she is put down, a criminal wont be adding anymore atrocities to the ole police record (those being the crimes we know about).
How many times have we read about an individual who was released despite a history of horrific assault and even murder against the public? Finally, that individual commits a more recent crime so savage that he is given a life without parole or a dp sentence, though by that time the damage to more lives has been done.
On the otherhand, criminals serving various sentences, including life, do have certain amenities and an oppurtunity to continue to leech off the public. They say even Charlie Manson has computer access. A friend's brother, incarcerated for assault, drugs and theft, managed from prison to ring up hundreds of dollars on his mother's phone number (I am not sure how he performed this stunt, only that dear mom, faced with the choice of pressing charges against her boy or quietly paying the outrageous bills, decided to take care of the cost herself). Assassinations against witnessess have been traced to prison.
But I also believe our judicial system, including the administration of the death penalty, has serious problems.
If this were not so, we, as law abiding citizens, would not be spending so much time worrying about the legal consequences of protecting our lives from assault. A fine line seperates an act of self protection from assault or homicide...and other factors beside the evidence at hand, the context of the incident and even the upstanding character of the citizen, can play a part in determining whether or not the self defender is freed or jailed. Other factors, including the mood of the judicial system, the quality of the attornies, the bias of the media...
Just as a firearm owner should always be prepared for and aware of the consequences of an act of self defense, I feel that when the system puts down a person in defense of society, it too should be liable for its actions.
The use of genetic detective work in determining guilt or innocence, WHEN CARRIED OUT CORRECTLY, is a big step forward toward providing more honest verdicts. I find it difficult to believe that in a nation that split the atom decades before I was born, that was capable of landing men on the moon and sending probes toward the far ends of the solar system, we are still dependent on such a biased and haphazard method for seperating guilt from innocence as we close in on the 21st century. Even well intentioned witnessess and police may mispercieve an event that could determine guilt or innocence... and many of these participants are often not that well intentioned when it comes to having a motiviation for testifying.
Jeff