For many years, people who opposed the death penalty have contended that the death penalty is not a crime deterrent, and with good reason. Although some people support the death penalty under the pretense that it deters crime, the statistics don't conclusively show that the death penalty is a crime deterrent. For example, in regards to homicides, it has been proven statically that states without the death penalty have fewer homicides than states with the death penalty. The New York Times, after conducting a survey, found that ten (10) out of twelve (12) states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than the national average, and that half of the states with the death penalty are over the national average. The New York Times found that during the last twenty (20) years, the homicide rate in the states with the death penalty have been 18% to 101% higher than in states without the death penalty. The death penalty in not a deterrent to capital crime because there have been studies that proved this theory, but it does not take much thought to conclude that those who happen to commit crimes do not consider that they will be caught. In the case of the premeditated crime, the person expects to evade apprehension. In the case of crimes of passion, the person simply does not think about punishment before committing the crime.
Since 1608, when records began to be kept on capital punishment, estimates are that more than 18,800 legal executions have been carried out in America. And although capital punishment was widely used throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the mid 20th century offered a short respite in the number of persons that were legally executed in the United States. Also, between 1930 and 1967, when the United States Supreme Court ordered a nationwide stay of pending executions, nearly 3,800 persons were put to death.