Reporter Nancy Mullane on Death Row

Photo courtesy Life of the Law.

The fantastic website Life of the Law includes an insightful piece by Nancy Mullane about her visit to Death Row.

“It’s all politics,” [death row inmate] Helzer says flat out [to Mullane], like this isn’t he first time he’s thought about it and now he has come to a conclusion, “Oh Death Row, tough on crime. It’s not a deterrent. The Death Penalty is not a deterrent. I’ll tell you why. One, is when people do commit crimes, they are not thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I might get the death penalty, I better not do this.’ They’re in the moment. They want what they want. They have short-sighted. They don’t forsee the consequences of their actions because they’re impulsive. They do whatever they do, whatever crime it is. Now thinking about the ramifications. So that the notion that the death penalty is somehow a deterrent is a false premise.”