Avg murder rates based on Death Penalty States vs Non-DP states

[The Straight Story]

MURDER RATES PER 100,000 PEOPLE (2005)

Average of murder rates among death penalty states in 2005: 5.3
Average of murder rates among non-death penalty states in 2005: 2.8

Non DP states/stats

State--murder rate--Population totals

Alaska-- 4.8 --663,661
Hawaii-- 1.9 --1,275,194
Iowa-- 1.3 --2,966,334
Maine-- 1.4 --1,321,505
Massachusetts-- 2.7 --6,398,743
Michigan-- 6.1 --10,120,860
Minnesota-- 2.2 --5,132,799
North Dakota-- 1.1 --636,677
Rhode Island-- 3.2 --1,076,189
Vermont-- 1.3 --623,050
West Virginia-- 4.4 --1,816,856
Wisconsin-- 3.5 --5,536,201

So all this makes me wonder:
Is all this less relevant to DP and more relevant to total population and density?? Two examples:

California-- 6.9 --36,132,147
Pennsylvania-- 6.1 --12,429,616

And note above, Michigan is 6.1 and has highest population of Non DP states.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=12&did=169

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0004986.html

[rodeodance]

1. WI has the Death penalty as a referndum question nov 7.

[JI7]

2. i'm tired of the death penalty as deterrent argument

the facts just don't back it up. how many people who think about killing someone is going to say "well, since i might get the death penalty instead of life maybe this is not a good idea" or "at the worst i will get life in prison".

[TygrBright]

5. Yep. And for every criminal who says...

..."Whoa, better not do that, or they'll slip me the needle!" there are five more who look down at the corpse and say, "Well, what the hell, they can only kill me once, I might as well shoot the cop, too."

Killing people to drive home the moral lesson that killing people is wrong is... well...

dumb.

tiredly,
Bright

[Buck Laser]

3. Stress of living in a state may be a factor---

Hence, the 4.8 rate in Alaska, possibly due to the long, cold winters. Otherwise, I think population density is closely related to the murder rate. I suspect that the death penalty has ZERO deterrent effect.

[Blue_In_AK]

4. That's it,

and a LOT of alcoholism. I transcribe criminal trials for the state, so I hear all kinds of stuff. I'd say 90 percent of the cases I type are alcohol-related, and usually very sad.