Tired and hackneyed. Those are the words that best describe the arguments Maryland legislators opposed to the death penalty used at their press conference last Thursday. Del. Samuel I. Rosenberg, a Baltimore Democrat — and my fellow alumnus from that prestigious high school known as Baltimore City College — introduced a bill that will repeal Maryland’s death penalty statute. “It’s not a deterrent,” I heard Rosenberg say on a local television news station.
Not accurate. Capital punishment researcher (and capital punishment proponent) Dudley Sharp contends there exist several studies that show the death penalty is a deterrent. But let’s assume for the moment that Rosenberg is correct. Let’s take his argument — one capital punishment opponents make often — to its illogical conclusion.
