Richard C. Dieter

About the author: Richard C. Dieter is a lawyer and executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, an anti-capital punishment advocacy group.

In a nationwide poll, a group of randomly selected police chiefs were asked what they believe really works in fighting crime and whether the death penalty is an effective crime-fighting tool. While many of the chiefs support the death penalty philosophically, a strong majority do not believe that it is an effective law enforcement tool in practice. Police chiefs view other methods of controlling crime as more effective, including gun control, community policing, neighborhood crime programs, and more vigilant efforts against drug crime and youth crime. Additionally, chiefs rank capital punishment as less cost-effective than other methods available to them, and a...