46yr old man raped and murdered an 11month old baby..

[magical thyme]

62. correlation does not equal causation.

I can think of a number of possible reasons why Maine has a much lower murder rate than Louisiana. None of them have to do with death penalty, or lack thereof.

1. temperature. it wasn't long ago that I read hear on DU that studies show that anger or anger-crimes are much higher on average in hotter areas than cooler.

2. space. Maine is a lot less crowded than mid-Atlantic and many southern states. Our "big" cities are a joke.

3. environment. People here are too busy surviving to have time to murder.

4. police. our police are pretty decent compared to down south. you won't read about violent police up here.

5. culture. the culture up here is simply very, very different than in the south.

6. back to temperature. winters are long and tough. the joke is you don't live in Maine, you survive it. there simply isn't time in the summer to get into trouble. If you're not a tourist, you're too busy trying to get ready for winter. Then it's too cold to set foot outside.