For decades, U.S. college professors have been in the forefront of critics of the death penalty. But now, a small but growing number of professors and social scientists are speaking out in support of capital punishment.
The small cadre of pro-death-penalty academics is changing the nature of the American national debate on the subject:
While about 70 percent of the general public still supports the death penalty, it has been estimated that some 99 percent of college professors oppose it.
John McAdams, a political science professor at Marquette University in Milwaukee, takes issue with the belief that black defendants are more likely to receive the death penalty than whites convicted in similar slayings.
Recent studies have established that murder rates declined in counties where the death penalty was imposed. Researchers produced a statistical formula which suggests that each execution saved the lives of 18 potential victims.
Source: Richard Willing, Death Penalty Gains Unlikely Defenders, USA Today, January 7, 2003.
For text http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20030107/4756754s.htm
For more on Capital Punishment http://www.ncpa.org/iss/cri/
FMF Policy Bulletin/15 January 2003
