ABSTRACT
Many states and countries without capital punishment have an incidence of homicide below that of comparable states and countries touching their borders which have the death penalty. In 1963 the National Council on Crime and Delinquency voiced its opposition to the death penalty. There is no pronounced difference in the rate of murders and other crimes of violence between states which impose the death penalty and those bordering on them which do not. Crimes of violence frequently are committed by persons suffering from a serious mental disorder; they are irresistably driven to their crimes. Their mental illness is not detected until violent acts occur. Some have been convicted and sentenced to death when they should have been declared incompetent to stand trial. The death penalty imposes a discrimination against those in society who are most generally the victims of bigotry and prejudice.
