Do you agree with this analysis? Why or why not?

I used to think the death penalty was deserved and an important part of our justice system, but the older I have gotten and the more I have become aware of the disparities within our society, the less I think it has a place here. I cant say with certainty that I think it should be abolished completely, I dont know what I believe on that entirely, but the system itself is flawed for sure. The US News article spoke of how it serves as a deterrent and talked of how each execution deters an average of 14 murders annually (Muhlhausen, 2014). I cant see how they could accurately find these numbers. There is no time frame mentioned after each execution for this drop in murders, is this a national total? Only 27 states have the death penalty, so are the other states included or only these 27 (States and Capital Punishment, 2021)? I am sure the study itself provides more detail but this article simply was not enough information.

I dont believe you can prove that it is a deterrent, last year, there were only 17 executions, and that number has steadily declined over the last 20 years or more (Number of death row prisoners executed in the United States from 2000 to 2020, 2021). If any of these would be perpetrators were betting on it, they have a pretty good shot at not getting the death penalty or if they did, a long run before execution. Doesnt seem like much of a deterrent to me, and I do not think the answer to that would be to up the numbers.