# Press/Media STOP SAYING THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO KILL OTHERS

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-media-stop-saying-the-names-of-those-who-kill-others/938817>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [March 27, 2021, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-media-stop-saying-the-names-of-those-who-kill-others/938817 "2021-03-27T03:02:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-media-stop-saying-the-names-of-those-who-kill-others/938817/61 "2021-04-20T03:56:21Z")

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> [@Bicycle\_Bill](#):
>
> Maybe not, but it is an effective deterrent. Of all the murderers, horse thieves, or cattle rustlers who swung from the end of a noose back in the old West, not a single one of them ever rustled cattle, stole horses, or killed anyone ever again.

This deliberate misuse of the word “deterrent” stopped being clever and/or cute decades ago.

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**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2021, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/press-media-stop-saying-the-names-of-those-who-kill-others/938817/62 "2021-04-20T04:12:23Z")

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> [@Bicycle\_Bill](#):
>
> And I’m sure that the fact that people _ **KNEW** _ something like this was going to happen if they got caught kept a fair number of them walking on the straight and narrow path.

In the modern world we have prisons, and the data suggests that the threat of decades in prison is at least as good a deterrent to the most serious crimes as the death penalty is. Think of all the mass shooters who turn the gun on themselves in the end; Why? If every perp thinks death is clearly the worst thing that could happen, then we should never see mass shooters / terrorists kill themselves after committing their crimes in a state (or a country) without the death penalty.

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