35 states including Georgia still use capital punishment.  Should the death penalty be allowed?  It’s one of the polarizing questions of our time and everyone has an opinion.  Arm yourself with a few facts the next time you discuss the morality, deterrence factor and cost of enforcing the ultimate penalty.  A pretty good synopsis on both sides of key questions can be found at www.procon.org. 

The arguments on whether the death penalty deters crime boil pit hard numbers against what some call  common sense.   Check the violent crime rates between states that do and do not have capital punishment.    The ACLU claims, “States that have death penalty laws do not have lower crime rates or murder rates than states without such laws. And states that have abolished capital punishment show no significant changes in either crime or murder rates.”  On the other hand, Fordham Law Professor Earnest Van Den Haag argues, “People fear nothing more than death. Therefore, nothing will deter a criminal more than the fear of death... life in prison is less feared. Murderers clearly prefer it to execution -- otherwise, they would not try to be sentenced to life in prison instead of death...”

http://deathpenalty.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=002000#3