How The Death Penalty Deters
If someone was going to commit a crime, and they knew they would get the death penalty, then the death penalty would deter them from committing the crime, therefore also saving lives. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. For example, Isaac Ehrlich employed a new idea that showed that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Another researcher of the death penalty, Ernest van den Haag, says: “They fear most death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts. Whatever people fear most is likely to deter most.”