By Nikki Goeser, Executive Director of the Crime Prevention Research Center
Without the threat of capital punishment, there's no reason for killers to agree to a plea bargain.
Amidst the high murder rate of the last couple of years, it is
little wonder that Americans support the death penalty by at least a 3-to-2
margin. And their support would rise to more than 2-to-1 if death sentences
were carried out on a timelier basis. Thirty-two states have inmates on
death row, but only eight states and the federal government have held
executions since 2020. Even in the states where executions occur, the average
time between sentencing and execution is 19.8 years. But that is only part of
the story behind delays. Several years of delay from murder to sentencing is
common. It took four years and nine months before Nikolas Cruz was finally
sentenced earlier this month for the mass murder of 17 people in the Parkland
massacre. Still, because of one juror, he didn’t get the death penalty. [more...]
No comments:
Post a Comment