A new survey by the New York Times found that states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than states with the death penalty. The Times reports that ten of the twelve states without the death penalty have homicide rates below the national average, whereas half of the states with the death penalty have homicide rates above. During the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with the death penalty has been 48% - 101% higher than in states without the death penalty. "I think Michigan made a wise decision 150 years ago," said the state's governor, John Engler, a Republican, referring to the state's abolition of the death penalty in 1846. "We're pretty proud of the fact that we don't have the death penalty." (New York Times, 9/22/00) See also, states with and without the death penalty , murder rates by state 1995-1998, and deterrence.

A Story of Mental Retardation and the Death Penalty; Accomplice Served Less than 6 Years Lorenza Norwood, whose IQ measures in the 60s, was sentenced to death for the murder of a convenience store clerk in 1993 in North Carolina. Norwood's accomplice, Herbert Joyner, refused to talk to the police, hired his own lawyer, accepted a plea, and was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment, of which he served less than six. Norwood, on the other hand, was defended by court-appointed attorneys after having already talked to the police.
Norwood was born two months pre-mature. He failed the first grade. When he was 30, he was out of work. When he came up 20 cents short in buying a bottle of wine, he got into an argument with a store clerk. The clerk hit him with a baseball bat and chased him from the store. Later, Norwood returned to the store with Joyner, a man with a long criminal record who urged Norwood to take revenge. The clerk died from a fire started by Norwood and Joyner.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty should be reserved for the most heinous crimes and the most culpable criminals. "To permit the execution of a person with mental retardation," says Jim Ellis, a national expert on mental retardation and a professor at the University of New Mexico, "requires concluding that such an individual is both in the bottom 2 percent of the population in intelligence and also in the top 1 or 2 percent of the population in his appreciation and understanding of the wrongfulness of his actions." (Charlotte Observer, 9/14/00)