I'd brought the statistical thing up only to say I wouldn't be surprised if there was a correlation between a state's practice of capital punishment and an actually higher rate of homicides compared to those that do not. But as Skybird correctly points out, correlation does not equal causation and you would still need to look at more than two variables to even establish any serious correlation.
More meaningful than any simple graph would be studies done on this by independent, respected criminologists. I'm sure they've been done, though perhaps not definitive (because there are so many variables involved when trying to find this kind of causal relationship), and can probably even be found on the 'net. Maybe I'll look later out of curiousity.
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What can you do against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself, who gives your arguments a fair hearing and then simply persists in his lunacy? -- George Orwell
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