Joseph Sobran

About the author: Joseph Sobran is a conservative syndicated columnist.

A news item proves that the death penalty is a deterrent: A witness to a murder decides not to testify and chooses instead to go to jail for contempt of court because an earlier witness had been murdered for testifying. This story confirms that people are deterred from committing acts that could result in death. Criminals know that the threat of death motivates people and enables them to commit crimes. The fear of death is a fundamental human motive, and criminals, in this respect, are no different from other people.

Is the death penalty a deterrent"

This old and hotly disputed question has now been answered: Yes. The answer arrived on, of all things, the front page of the liberal Washington Post...