Might Executing All Who Are Convicted of Murder Lower the Murder Rate in U.S.? 1922

“Murder Rate Is on Increase in United States,” from the Albuquerque Morning Journal, New Mexico, Oct. 19, 1922

Is Partially Due to the Fact that Capital Punishment Is Not Inflicted in All Cases, Is Claim

Detroit, Mich., Oct. 13—The murder rate is increasing in the United States because, in the opinion of leading statesmen, capital punishment is not inflicted in all cases of deliberate murder and because misguided sentimentalists are interesting themselves in behalf of the murderers, Henry Barrett Chamberlain, operating director of the Chicago Crime Commission, declared tonight before the American Prison Association.

Crime, though incurable, can be minimized and controlled and capital punishment is a deterrent and does reduce murder, he asserted, speaking on the subject “The Importance of the Death Penalty for the Murderer.”

“The right of the state to execute a murderer does not exist because of the gravity of the offense, but solely because of the necessity for protecting itself from the murderer,” he said. “Abolition of the death penalty for murder in this country usually has been for short periods, followed by its restoration when the murder rate rose.

“Some, who admit the capital punishment is just, deny that it is ever necessary. They deny that the death penalty horrifies the criminal. The murder rate in the United States is rising, not because capital punishment is not the proper penalty for murder, but in the opinion of our greatest statesmen because capital punishment is not inflicted in all cases of deliberate murder and because sentimentalists, well meaning and sincere but badly misguided, are giving most of their attention to the consideration of the murderer rather than to his victim.”