Teresa Lewis

[over the mountain]

I generally agree with you Chico with regards to the death penalty as not being a deterrent to murder. Anyone who does an act of murder that would rise to the level of a death penalty case such as "hostage-rape-then murder" situation is so far beyond a reasonable state of mind and thinking that the thought that they might be the death penalty would not enter their decision making process and act as a deterrent before they commit the act.

That being said, in the situaiton of "murder for hire" or "contract killing" i think the death penalty may have a deterrent in that the person doing the hiring isnt the crazed lunatic murderer but someone who is showing reasonable and calculated thoughts in how to commit murder without getting caught and without having the ability to kill another person.

In short, i dont think crazed rapist lunatic killers are deterred by the death penalty as they clearly have no reasonable thought but it is a deterrent to someone who is calculating, methodical and in hiring another to kill shows signs of reasonable thought to which the thought of the death penalty may deter them from actually acting.

But there are 2 types of deterrrents considered for criminal crimes.

One is general deterrent - someone who is considering on hiring someone to kill their husband and child may hear this news and be deterred from following through.

The second is specific detterent - you put a murdered to death, that specific murder will never murder again. although imo specific deterrent shouldnt really be considered in death penalty cases, it should be applied to crimes like DUI etc where if you punish someone hard enough the 1st or 2nd time on a DUI, that specific driver may be deterred from driving drunk in the future.

either way, isnt anyone who can kill another human being mentally incompetent? The act alone is evidence of crazy.