Death penalty supporters also feel that the likelihood of an innocent person being put to death is very low due to the safeguards in place. They claim that the release of many people on death row demonstrates the success of these safeguards. As pointed out in the preceding paragraph, condemned inmates are given more than enough appeals to prove their innocence. Some inmates have even remained on death row for twenty years or more while their cases are exhaustively reviewed and appealed at both the state and federal levels. The death penalty is considered by proponents to be justifiable, even if there is a chance that an innocent person could be executed. This is because the enforcement of the death penalty would save far more innocent lives by deterring people from murdering than would be lost from the execution of innocent people.

People opposed to the death penalty also point to the fact that over half of the countries in the world have abolished the death penalty, including all other major industrialized, democratic nations. In the five countries with the highest homicide rates that do not impose the death penalty, the murder rate is 21.6 murders per 100,000 people. In the five countries with the highest homicide rates that do impose the death penalty, the murder rate is 41.6 murders per 100,000 people ("Deterrence"). Furthermore, the United States has the highest crime and murder rates of any of the other major democratic nations, all of which have abandoned the death penalty. In 1965, Great Britain called for a five-year suspension on executions following a recent decline in the imposition of the death penalty and growing anti-death penalty sentiments in the country. In 1969, the government abolished the death penalty altogether because there had been no surge in homicides or crime (Flanders 45). Death penalty opponents feel that these statistics lend credibility to the argument that the death penalty does not cause a decrease in homicides and in some instances may even lead to an increase i

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