Nat Hentoff

Nat Hentoff is a columnist for the Village Voice and the author of numerous books on civil liberties, including The First Freedom: The Tumultuous History of Free Speech in America. In the following viewpoint Hentoff rejects the claim that the death penalty deters murder. He cites statistics showing that the murder rate in states with the death penalty is higher than the murder rate in states without capital punishment. Moreover, he argues that the death penalty is often applied in cases where the defendant has poor legal defense, and many accused murderers are wrongly convicted. The mistakes and lack of fairness with which the death penalty is applied, he argues, harm the criminal justice system more than the unproven “deterrent effect” helps society.

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1. What percentage of...