AboutDudley Sharp Expertise Any question specific to the death penalty.
Experience Partial CV of Dudley Sharp
Re: For the death penalty
not updated for a while
This CV goes through a list of the three websites of Justice For All. If it doesn't all come through, please let me know.
Mr. Sharp, a former opponent of capital punishment, has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.
Partial List:
--- "Rethinking the Death Penalty", Nightline, ABCNews, 6/22/00. with former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Kogan. Go to:
http://abcnews.go.com/onair/nightline/transcripts/nl000522_trans.html
---- "The Death Penalty", This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts,
ABC News, 6/4/00 Appearance with Illinois Governor George Ryan, discussing
moratoriums and innocence issues.
--- "Death Penalty Update", The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, 7/30/00 PBS. A
review of death penalty issues.
--- "The Death Penalty", Speaker, Annual meeting of the American
Corrections Association, San Antonio, Texas, 1997. Debate between myself and Richard Burr, a well known death penalty defense attorney and an anti death penalty activist.
--- "Death Penalty Debate", between Eric Zorn, an anti-death penalty
columnist with the Chicago Tribune, and Dudley Sharp. April-June, 2000.
Visits many of today's major death penalty issues in an in-depth format.
http://www.ericzorn.com/rhubarb/death/
--- "Capital punishment is an effective way to protect innocent people", May 27, 2000 - St. Louis Post Dispatch. Many more innocents will be put at risk by not executing. Scroll down about halfway to reach the letter at www.prodeathpenalty.com/news.htm
--- "Death on Hold?", Fort Worth Star Telegram, 2/5/00. Why a moratorium on executions is unwarranted.
www.startelegram.com/news/doc/1047/1:VIEWPOINT2/1:VIEWPOINT20205100.html
--- "Innocence and the Death Penalty", 4/16/00, Pro Death Penalty.com. An in
depth look at the concern for the innocence issue.
www.prodeathpenalty.com/Innocence.htm
--- "Bias on the death penalty", Richmond Times Dispatch, 4/23/01, deals with the racial issues. At www.timesdispatch.com/MGB5AB8IVLC.html
--- "Washington Journal", C-SPAN, 4/19/01. Death penalty moratorium issues, with Jane Henderson of the Quixote Center in Maryland, coordinator of the Equal Justice Project.
--- ABCNews.com, Taking Sides, essay "Exoneration Hype Exaggerated", 5/10/00. A brief essay regarding the absence of journalistic standards when dealing with issues of innocence and the death penalty. It is the second article down.
www.abcnews.go.com/sections/us/TakingSides/takingsides7.html
--- "The Wrong Man, Letters to the Editor", 12/4/99. A response to aarticle on innocence and the death penalty (The Wrong Man", 11/99). Go to: www.prodeathpenalty.com/Wrong_Man.htm
--- "ABA's Proposed Moratorium Relies on Flimsy Facts", The Texas Lawyer,
March 16, 1997. An article addressing the inaccuracies of the American Bar Association in their call for a moratorium on executions.
--- Guest Lecturer, Senior Seminar, National Foreign Affairs Training Center,
US Department of State, March 30, 1999
---- "Innocence Defined", THE RECORD (Bergan County, New Jersey), 11/19/99. An op/ed addressing the lack of defined standards in the "innocence" discussion regarding the death penalty.
--- Testimony before the Pennsylvania State Senate Judiciary Committee,
February 2000. Death Penalty Moratorium legislation.
--- Alaska Senate Judiciary Committee, Death Penalty Testimony, July 1997.
Testimony regarding referendum on the death penalty and other death penalty
issues
--- Texas Legislature, testimony in both House and Senate regarding death
penalty issues and bills.
--- "Guilty as Charged", Wall Street Journal, A22, 6/28/00. Co-authored
with Dianne Clements, an article about the highly publicized case of executed
Texas murderer Gary Graham.
--- Reply to "Executioner's Swan Song" by Michael Kroll. Salon.com, 2/11/00.
Michael Kroll is a journalist and founder of The Death Penalty Information
Center, the leading information source of those opposed to capital
punishment. This is a published Letter reply to Kroll's 2/8/00 article.
www.salon.com/letters/2000/02/11/sat/index2.html
---"Proffitt argument is 'folly' ", North Carolina State University's The
Technician, 11/29/00. A letter reply. http://technicianonline.com/read/tol/opinion/001967.html
--- "Sen. Pat Leahy Dead Wrong On Death Penalty", aka "A different look at
the death penalty", 11/11/00, Saint Michael's College (Vermont)The MAGAZINE
A reply to Sen. Leahy. ("Dying an innocent death?", 11/9/00)
www.smcvt.edu/magazine/Campus/feedback.htm
--- :"DEATH PENALTY AND SENTENCING INFORMATION In the United States",
10/1/97. Pro Death Com Penalty .at http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html
This is a long report on many aspects of the death penalty. Although a bit out of date, it explores most of the false allegations against the death penalty. Much of the material has been significantly updated. Please inquire.
--- "Death Penalty in Black and White", IntellectualCapital.com, 6/24/99.
Visits various racial issues from the death penalty debate. at
http://speakout.com/activism/opinions/4010-1.html
---"Society Should See Difference Between Criminal, Punitive Acts", The
Daily Oklahoman, 06/28/1997. The title is self explanatory.
Chapters in Books
"Innocent People Have Not Been Executed", from Problems of Death, Opposing Viewpoints Series, Greenhaven Press, 2000
"The Death Penalty Should Be Retained", from Capital Punishment, Current Controversies, Greenhaven Press, 2000
Death Penalty Debates
-- American University, U. sponsored, Washington, DC, 10/30/00
---Louisiana Minority Correctional Workers Assn., Baton Rouge, La., 10/16/00
---South Texas College of Law, Black Law Students Assn., Houston, Texas, 10/25/00
---University of Texas Law School, sponsored jointly by The Federalist Society and The National Lawyers Guild, Austin, Texas, 4/9/01
and many others
For more, enter "dudley sharp" "death penalty" at www.google.com/search
Position: Mr. Sharp was Vice President, Political Director and member of the Board of Directors of JFA from July 1993, when JFA was founded, through January 2000. He opposed capital punishment until December 1995. He is now Resource Director for JFA.
JUSTICE FOR ALL is a criminal justice reform organization. Our focus is solely on violent crime issues and what we can do, within the criminal justice and legislative systems, to lessen injury to the innocent and to prosecute the guilty. To accomplish that goal, we are actively involved in community education, elections, legislation, victim's rights issues, including our involvement in many individual cases.
Mr. Sharp's e-mail sharpjfa@aol.com phone 713-623-6070
Question Dear Sir,
I am doing a project for school on whether the death penalty should be made illegal or kept. I will be debating the subject with another classmate and I was wondering if you knew whether crime generally goes up or down when death penalty is installed. I would also be interested to know where you stand on the issue. Thank you
Answer Death Penalty, Deterrence & Murder Rates: Let's be clear
by Dudley Sharp, Justice Matters, 0309
There is a constant within all jurisdictions -- negative consequences will always deter some - it is a truism. Therefore, the question is not "Can we prove that the death penalty acts to deter some?" Of course it does. The question is "Can death penalty opponents prove the death penalty does not deter some?" Of course they can't.
Whether a jurisdiction has high murder rates or low ones, rather rising or lowering rates, the presence of the death penalty will produce fewer net murders, the absence of the death penalty will produce more net murders.
It is just like smoking rates or the rates at which people speed in their cars, whether a jurisdiction has the highest such rates or the lowest of such rates, there will always be some, in all jurisdictions, who don't smoke because of the deterrence of fear of health problems and don't speed because of the deterrence of speeding violations, resulting in criminal prosecution and higher insurance costs.
The Poor Model
In their story, "States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates", The New York Times did their best to illustrate that the death penalty was not a deterrent, by showing that the average murder rate in death penalty states was higher than the average rate in non death penalty states and, it is. (1)
What the Times failed to observe is that their own study confirmed that you can't simply compare those averages to make that determination regarding deterrence.
As one observer stated: "The Times story does nothing more than repeat the dumbest of all dumb mistakes — taking the murder rate in a traditionally high-homicide state with capital punishment (like Texas) and comparing it to a traditionally low-homicide state with no death penalty (like North Dakota) and concluding that the death penalty doesn't work at all. Even this comparison doesn't work so well. The Times own graph shows Texas, where murder rates were 40 percent above Michigan's in 1991, has now fallen below Michigan . . .". (2)
Within the Times article, Michigan Governor John Engler states, "I think Michigan made a wise decision 150 years ago," referring to the state's abolition of the death penalty in 1846. "We're pretty proud of the fact that we don't have the death penalty."(3)
Even though easily observed on the Times' own graphics, they failed to mention the obvious. Michigan's murder rate is near or above that of 31 of the US's 38 death penalty states. And then, it should be recognized that Washington, DC (not found within the Times study) and Detroit, Michigan, two non death penalty jurisdictions, have been perennial leaders in murder and violent crime rates for the past 30 years. Delaware, a jurisdiction similar in size to them, leads the nation in executions per murder, but has significantly lower rates of murders and violent crime than do either DC or Detroit, during that same period.
Obviously, the Times study and any other simple comparison of jurisdictions with and without the death penalty, means little, with regard to deterrence.
Also revealed within the Times study, but not pointed out by them,: "One-third of the nation's executions take place in Texas—and the steepest decline in homicides has occurred in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Arkansas, which together account for nearly half the nation's executions." (4)
And, the Times also failed to mention that the major US jurisdiction with the most executions is Harris County (Houston, Texas), which has seen a 73% decrease in murder rates since resuming executions in 1982 -- possibly the largest reduction for a major metropolitan area since that time.
Also omitted from the Times review, although they had the data, is that during a virtual cessation of executions, from 1966-1980, that murders more than doubled in the US. Based upon the New York Times model, that indicates a strong and direct correlation between the lack of executions and the dramatic increase in murders, if that is specifically what you are looking for. But, you shouldn't be.
If deterrence was measured by direct correlation's between execution, or the lack thereof, and murder rates, as implied by the Times article, and as wrongly assumed by those blindly accepting that model, then there would be no debate, only more confusion. Which may have been the Times' goal.
Let's take a look at the science.
Some non death penalty jurisdictions, such as South Africa and Mexico lead the world in murder and violent crime rates. But then some non death penalty jurisdictions, such as Sweden, have quite low rates. Then there are such death penalty jurisdictions as Japan and Singapore which have low rates of such crime. But then other death penalty jurisdictions, such as Rwanda and Louisiana, that have high rates.
To which an astute observer will respond: But socially, culturally, geographically, legally, historically and many other ways, all of those jurisdictions are very different. Exactly, a simple comparison of only execution rates and murder rates cannot tell the tale of deterrence. And within the US, between states, there exist many variables which will effect the rates of homicides.
See murder rate REVIEW, below
As so well illustrated by the Times graphics, a non death penalty state, such as Michigan has high murder rates and another non death penalty state, such as North Dakota, has low murder rates and then there are death penalty states, such as Louisiana, with high murder rates and death penalty states, such South Dakota, with low rates. Apparently, unbeknownst to the Times, but quite obvious to any neutral observer, there are other factors at play here, not just the presence or absence of the death penalty. Most thinking folks already knew that.
As Economics Professor Ehrlich stated in the Times piece and, as accepted by all knowledgeable parties, there are many factors involved in such evaluations. That is why there is a wide variation of crime rates both within and between some death penalty and non death penalty jurisdictions, and small variations within and between others. Any direct comparison of only execution rates and only murder rates, to determine deterrence, would reflect either ignorance or deception.
Ehrlich called the Times study "a throwback to the vintage 1960's statistical analyses done by criminologists who compared murder rates in neighboring states where capital punishment was either legal or illegal." "The statistics involved in such comparisons have long been recognized as devoid of scientific merit." He called the Times story a "one sided affair" devoid of merit. Most interesting is that Ehrlich was interviewed by the Time's writer, Fessenden, who asked Ehrlich to comment on the results before the story was published. Somehow Ehrlich's overwhelming criticisms were left out of the article.
Ehrlich also referred Fessenden to some professors who produced the recently released Emory study. Emory Economics department head, Prof. Deshbakhsh "says he was contacted by Fessenden, and he indicated to the Times reporter that the study suggested a very strong deterrent effect of capital punishment."
Somehow, Fessenden's left that out of the Times story, as well. (5). This has become the common rule for anti death penalty journalism.
It is the same for all prospects of a negative outcome - they all deter some.
Maybe the Times will be a bit more professional (and honest), next time.
REVIEW
"The List: Murder Capitals of the World", 09/08, Foreign Policy Magazine
Capital punishment (cp) or not (ncp)
murder rates/100,000 population
4 out of the top 5 do not have the death penalty
1. Caracas (ncp), Venezuela 130-160
Bad policing.
2. New Orleans (cp), La, USA 69-95
Variable because of different counts in surging population. Drug related.
Nos 2 & 3 in US, Detroit (ncp), 46 and Baltimore (cp), 45.
3. Cape Town (ncp), South Africa 62
Most crimes with people who know each other.
4. Port Mores (ncp), Papua New Guinea 54
Chinese gangs, corrupt policing
5. Moscow (ncp), Russia 9.6
various
Of the Top 10 Countries With Lowest Murder Rates (1), 7 have the death penalty
O f the Top 10 Countries With Highest Murder Rates (2), 5 have the death penalty
Top 10 Countries With Lowest Murder Rates
Iceland 0.00 ncp
Senegal 0.33 ncp
Burkina Faso 0.38 cp
Cameroon 0.38 cp
Finland 0.71 ncp
Gambia 0.71 cp
Mali 0.71 cp
Saudi Arabia 0.71 cp
Mauritania 0.76 cp
Oman cp
Top 10 Countries With Highest Murder Rates
Honduras 154.02 ncp
South Africa 121.91 ncp
Swaziland 93.32 cp
Colombia 69.98 ncp
Lesotho 50.41 cp
Rwanda 45.08 ncp
Jamaica 37.21 cp
El. Salvador 36.88 cp
Venezuela 33.20 ncp
Bolivia 31.98 cp
1) "States With No Death Penalty Share Lower Homicide Rates", The New
York Times 9/22/00 located at
www.nytimes.com/2000/09/22/national/22STUD.html and www.nytimes.com/2000/09/22/national/22DEAT.html
2) “Don't Know Much About Calculus: The (New York) Times flunks high-school
math in death-penalty piece", William Tucker, National Review, 9/22/00, located
at www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment092200c.shtml
3) ibid, see footnote 11
4) "The Death Penalty Saves Lives", AIM Report, August 2000, located at
www. aim.org/publications/aim_report/2000/08a.html
5) "NEW YORK TIMES UNDER FIRE AGAIN", Accuracy in Media, 10/16/00, go to www.aim.org/
copyright 2000-2009 Dudley Sharp: Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
Mr. Sharp has appeared on ABC, BBC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, FOX, NBC, NPR, PBS , VOA and many other TV and radio networks, on such programs as Nightline, The News Hour with Jim Lehrer, The O'Reilly Factor, etc., has been quoted in newspapers throughout the world and is a published author.
A former opponent of capital punishment, he has written and granted interviews about, testified on and debated the subject of the death penalty, extensively and internationally.
