# A crazy, mad science idea : proving if the death penalty is effective

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-crazy-mad-science-idea-proving-if-the-death-penalty-is-effective/783482>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [April 1, 2017, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-crazy-mad-science-idea-proving-if-the-death-penalty-is-effective/783482 "2017-04-01T05:27:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 34

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**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2017, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-crazy-mad-science-idea-proving-if-the-death-penalty-is-effective/783482/34 "2017-04-01T21:38:05Z")

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We had a lengthy debate about the costs of the death penalty a few months ago in this thread: [Dylann Roof found guilty - rot in hell](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=813872), starting on p. 2.

I made this post at [post 96 of that thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19912235&postcount=96):

> [@Dylann Roof found guilty - rot in hell](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dylann-roof-found-guilty-rot-in-hell/774814/96):
>
> And, can you guarantee that in the approximately 15 years Roof will spend on death row, he won’t kill anyone?
> 
> From the wiki article on [Death Row](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_row)
> 
> > [@](#):
> >
> > In the United States, prisoners may wait many years before execution can be carried out due to the complex and time-consuming appeals procedures mandated in the jurisdiction. The time between sentencing and execution has increased relatively steadily between 1977 and 2010, including a 22% jump between 1989 and 1990 and a similar jump between 2008 and 2009. In 2010, a death row inmate waited an average of 178 months (roughly 15 years) between sentencing and execution.[1] Nearly a quarter of inmates on death row in the U.S. die of natural causes while awaiting execution.[2]
> 
> So it’s a death sentence, but for a quarter of the people sentenced to death, it’s life in prison without parole.

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