Reply #18: if you furthermore accounted for

[Lexingtonian]

the states with a death penalty statute on the books by haven't exercised, or less than (say) 5 times since the 1977 reinstatement, the picture is even more stark that lower murder rates correlate to abolition or non-exercise.

http://www.ncadp.org/facts_figures.html
Kansas (death penalty statutes were declared unconstitutional in 2004; have been no executions since 1976)
New Hampshire (have been no executions since 1976)
New Jersey (have been no executions since 1976)
New York (death penalty statutes declared unconstitutional in 2004; have been no executions since 1976)
South Dakota (have been no executions since 1976)
U.S. Military (have been no executions since 1976)

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state/
Delaware- 14 executions since 1977
Idaho- 1
Utah- 6
Nebraska- 3
Oregon- 2
Washington- 4
Ohio- 19
Montana- 2
Connecticut- 1
Colorado- 1
Kentucky- 2
Wyoming- 1
Pennsylvania- 3
Oklahoma- 79

I went to the legislature hearings when the morons tried to reinstate the death penalty in my state seven years ago, the time they got closest. (They keep on trying, losing more badly each time.) It's the same tired 'arguments', which are all slightly gussied up desire for revenge/retaliation and statistics that don't stand scrutiny, plus a claim to divine entitlement between the lines. They know it, of course.

As you can see from the executions put on a map, capital punishment is a religious-level belief system presently identified with The South. If you've ever watched an execution being carried out, it's in effect a well scripted ritual killing.