Hypothetically if a prisoner is handed a 'life' sentence, but then makes parole twenty years into serving, for good behavior, that convict has another chance to rape, or murder again. Perhaps the biggest reason to keep capital punishment in effect, is to prevent a crime or multiple crimes from happening. The late Ernest van den Haag, PhD, professor of Sociology at Fordham University, was quoted saying, "Nothing will deter a criminal more than a death sentence, a life sentence must be less deterring than a death sentence. And we must execute murderers as long as it is merely possible that their execution protects citizens from future murder." What is to stop a person sentenced to life imprisonment, with no possibility of parole from killing while in prison? Nothing, a man with nothing to lose, is terrifying. Professor of Mass Communication, Paul Van Slambrouck, reporter at Christian Science Monitor; agrees stating, "Assaults in prisons across the U.S., both against fellow inmates and staff, have more than doubled in the past decade." According to statistics assembled by Criminal Justice Institute in Middletown, Connecticut. .
Crime would run rampant if there wasn't some way to deter people from committing the acts. Michael Summers, PhD, MBA, Professor of Management Science at Pepperdine University, published an article titled, "Capital Punishment Works", he quotes in this article, "Our recent research shows that each execution carried out is correlated with about 74 fewer murderers the following year. Over a twenty-six year period from 1979-2004, using FBI data, there seems to be a correlation .
in that when executions increase, murder decreases, and when executions decrease, murder increases." Death is feared more than life imprisonment, and deters prospective murders not deterred by the thought of life in prison. .
The justice system basically attempts to mete out a punishment which fits the crime.