The Death Penalty Promotes Violence thereby Making Society Less Safe

Does the imposition of the death penalty reverse the moment when brute force was employed, or a deadly weapon was wielded to claim the life of somebodies loved one? Of course not, and similarly, does the imposition of the death penalty resurrect the life of the person, whose life was taken? Does it eliminate, or even in the tiniest, fragment of a sense, mitigate, the pain experienced by those that loved the victim? I think to say it does trivializes and undermines what we know as love. Moving beyond the human face, does the imposition of the death penalty deter crime? Does it stop would be murders in their tracks, making our society a safer place? The answer is no. Contray to that, statistically speaking, states that do not practice the death penalty have remarkably lower murder rates than their life taking counterparts. In 2007 the difference being an astonishing 42%. I repeat, states that did not impose the death penalty in 2007 as reported by (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/deterrence-states-without-death-penalty-have-had-consistently-lower-murder-rates) had 42% less cases of murder than those that did. Clearly making states that impose the death penalty less safe than those who do not. In examining these statistics, the question remains why? Why does the death penalty not deter crime? Perhaps the answer lies in the message that the death penalty sends to citizens. By quote unquote, fighting fire with fire, we are essentially promoting violence as a solution. We state, violence is a way of correcting what has happened, it is an equalizer, through violence we can find justice, and after introducing this message into the lives of our families and children, are we really surprised when they adopt this idea, make it their own and apply it? The death penalty teaches murder, and more horrific than that, it teaches that murder is a just solution. The statistics speak for themselves. It is time to recognize that when we stop demonstrating violence as an answer, we begin to be greeted with real solutions and make our society a safer place.