# What is the "right" number of people to execute for serious crimes in America? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 8, 2016, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231 "2016-12-08T21:03:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/21 "2016-12-09T20:39:23Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > Please explain how that would accomplish anything of benefit to anyone. > > If you really want executions to have any deterrent effect, you need to execute people before they commit any crimes. Afterward is too late. Nonsense. So imprisonment isn’t a deterrent unless we can imprison people before they commit crimes? How about fining drivers before they run red lights? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2016, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/22 "2016-12-09T22:05:22Z")
It should be equal to the total number of homicides, more or less. It’s cruel to lock a person in a box for all or most of their life. If you’re going to deprive a person of their life, at least don’t force them to experience it in real time. ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/23 "2016-12-10T01:15:39Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > PS - no factually innocent person has been executed in the US since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1977. How exactly do you determine factually innocent? The courts do not do that. They only determine “not guilty”. There is no official agency that grants ‘factually innocent’ status as far as I know. If no people can be determined to be factually innocent, then your claim follows by definition. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/24 "2016-12-10T01:43:54Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > I would only execute the truly incorrigible, serial-killer, no-hope-for-rehabilitation-by-manmade-methods ones. Even then that might be several dozen executions a year. Other than “zero,” this is the best answer. Reserve it for the extremely awful criminals. Use it as a message: extremism can be met with extremism. Using it for more ordinary murderers (if that is not an oxymoron) dilutes the effect too much. You end up with the Texas Effect, where the number of people executed reflects as badly upon the jurisdiction as upon the criminals. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/25 "2016-12-10T12:29:49Z")
Count me against the death penalty too. We’re human, we make mistakes, and it’s impossible to apologise - let alone make restitution - to a dead person. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/26 "2016-12-10T12:47:57Z")
We in the UK have not had death penalty for a long time. Just as well, because if we have, then these would certainly have been executed > **[Birmingham Six](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Six)** > > The Birmingham Six were six Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the Court of Appeal on 14 March 1991. The six men were later awarded financial compensation ranging from £840,000 to £1.2 million. > The Birmingham pub bombings took place on 21 November 1974 and were attributed to the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA). Impr... > **[Guildford Four and Maguire Seven](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guildford_Four_and_Maguire_Seven)** > > The Guildford Four and Maguire Seven were the collective names of two groups whose convictions in English courts in 1975 and 1976 for the Guildford pub bombings of 5 October 1974 were eventually quashed after long campaigns for justice. The Guildford Four were wrongly convicted of bombings carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA); the Maguire Seven were wrongly convicted of handling explosives found during the investigation into the bombings. Both groups' convictions were even... Here is case of an innocent man who was executed [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=19842730](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/newreply.php?do=newreply&noquote=1&p=19842730) > **[Mahmood Hussein Mattan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahmood_Hussein_Mattan)** > > Mahmood Hussein Mattan (1923 – 3 September 1952) was a British Somali former merchant seaman who was wrongfully convicted of the murder of Lily Volpert on 6 March 1952. The murder took place in the Docklands area of Cardiff, Wales, and Mattan was mainly convicted on the evidence of a single prosecution witness. Mattan was executed in 1952. > His conviction was quashed 45 years later on 24 February 1998, his case being the first to be referred to the Court of Appeal by the newly formed Criminal... Here’s one that is difficult to deal with, this chap was not exactly the sharpest knife in the block, being educationally sub normal, and despite being in custody at the time, and his conviction rests completely upon the intent and meaning of words that were interpreted by the killer, > **[Derek Bentley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bentley_case)** > > Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was a British man who was hanged for the murder of a policeman during a burglary attempt. Christopher Craig, then aged 16, a friend and accomplice of Bentley, was accused of the murder. Bentley was convicted as a party to the crime under the English law principle of "joint enterprise", as the burglary had been committed in mutual understanding and bringing deadly weapons. The outcome of the trial, and Home Secretary David Maxwell Fyfe's fai... Possibly one of the most egregious misuses and non-disclosures of evidence relates to Stefan Kiszko convicted of raping and murdering a young girl. It turns out that the prosecution was well aware the Kiszko was infertile and was not capable of producing sperm, and could not possibly have carried out the rape.Those responsible for the miscarriage of justice still do not apologise, indeed many of them state they did things correctly =one cannot but wonder if the original investigation focused on him merely because he was different, and had some learning difficulties. > **[Murder of Lesley Molseed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Lesley_Molseed)** > > Lesley Molseed (14 August 1964 – 5 October 1975), born Lesley Susan Anderson, was an English schoolgirl who was abducted and murdered on 5 October 1975 in West Yorkshire. Stefan Kiszko (/ˈkiːʃkoʊ/ KEESH-koh), an intellectually disabled man who lived near Molseed's residence in Greater Manchester, was wrongly convicted in her murder and served sixteen years in prison before his conviction was overturned. His mental and physical health had deteriorated in prison, and he died twenty-two months af... ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231/27 "2016-12-10T15:18:41Z")
My first thought after reading the OP was “what the hell kind of question is that?” After reading through some of the thread, and skimming through the seemingly less interesting replies, my response is, no execution, imprison for life, escalating to the following steps depending of the severity of the crime no possibility of parole, in solitary confinement, with a piquant hint of “what the hell kind of question is that?” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-right-number-of-people-to-execute-for-serious-crimes-in-america/774231.md?page=1)