[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----USA

[Rick Halperin]

July 7


USA:

Who Misread the Data on Deterrence?


In their June 30 op-ed, "A Death Penalty Puzzle," Cass R. Sunstein and
Justin Wolfers asserted that the opinions issued recently in Baze v. Rees
by Supreme Court Justices John Paul Stevens and Antonin Scalia on opposite
sides of the death penalty debate are flawed by a misreading of the data
on the deterrent effect of capital punishment.

After asserting that "homicide rates are not closely associated with
capital punishment," they criticized Justice Stevens's conclusion that
"there remains no reliable statistical evidence that capital punishment in
fact deters potential offenders" and that "in the absence of such
evidence, deterrence cannot serve as a sufficient penological
justification for this uniquely severe and irrevocable punishment." The
authors dismissed this position by stating that "the absence of evidence
of deterrence should not be confused with evidence of absence."

Justice Stevens, however, asserted only what the empirical studies of the
question tell us and what the authors themselves concluded: that there is
no reliable and consistent evidence of a deterrent effect. It is hard to
see how Justice Stevens "misread the evidence." Indeed, it seems that Mr.
Sunstein and Mr. Wolfers have misread Justice Stevens. Perhaps they
thought that they needed to be evenhanded in their criticism of both sides
of the debate, despite what the evidence clearly shows.

HARRY MERRYMAN ---- Rochester, N.Y.

(source: Letter to the Editor, Washington Post)