Death penalty in Texas a homicide deterrent

[Joy]

Study: Death penalty in Texas a homicide deterrent
By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer © 2010 The Associated Press
Jan. 6, 2010, 2:57PM

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — As many as 60 people may be alive today in Texas because two dozen convicted killers were executed last year in the nation's most active capital punishment state, according to a study of death penalty deterrence by researchers from Sam Houston State University and Duke University.

A review of executions and homicides in Texas by criminologist Raymond Teske at Sam Houston in Huntsville and Duke sociologists Kenneth Land and Hui Zheng concludes a monthly decline of between 0.5 to 2.5 homicides in Texas follows each execution.

"Evidence exists of modest, short-term reductions in the numbers of homicides in Texas in the month of or after executions," the study published in a recent issue of Criminology, a journal of the American Society of Criminology, said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6801845.html