The death penalty debate is really three debates

On October 13, 2022, a jury in Broward County, Florida, delivered its decision on Nikolas Cruz, who had murdered 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland four years earlier. Nine jurors voted for death. Three did not, and that meant life in prison.¹² Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was among the dead, could not hide her anger. "I sent my daughter to school and she was shot eight times," she said.¹

Six months later, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law that lets a Florida jury recommend death with just 8 votes out of 12, the lowest bar in the country.² In 2025 Florida carried out 19 of the 48 executions in the United States, about 40 percent of the national total, after just one in 2024.³

In a 2026 Pew Research Center survey, 66 percent of Americans said they favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder. Yet 73 percent said there is some risk an innocent person would be put to death, and 59 percent said it does not deter crime.⁴ How can all of that be true at once? Perhaps because the death penalty debate is really three debates.

Debate one: what does justice demand?

For many supporters, the core question is what the worst murderers deserve and what victims' families are owed. When DeSantis signed the new law, he said, "Today, I signed legislation ensuring the victims of the most heinous crimes get justice." Tony Montalto, whose 14-year-old daughter Gina was killed at Parkland, put it more simply: "This bill is about victims' rights, plain and simple."²

Others start from the opposite principle. In 2018 Pope Francis changed the Catholic Church's official teaching to say that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person."⁵ In 2023 Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro announced he would not sign any execution warrants. "The commonwealth should not be in the business of putting people to death," he said, explaining that his view had "evolved" after his son asked him why it was OK to kill someone as a punishment for killing someone.⁶ Globally, Amnesty International recorded 2,707 executions in 17 countries in 2025, not counting the thousands it believes took place in China.⁷

Debate two: does it save lives?

The second debate is about evidence. In 2006 Emory University economist Paul Rubin told a US Senate subcommittee that executions deter murder. "Their conclusion is unanimous: all of the modern refereed papers find a significant deterrent effect," he testified. By his reckoning, "a conservative estimate is that each execution results in, on average, 18 fewer murders."⁸

Six years later, a committee of the National Research Council reviewed the same kind of studies and disagreed. The research, it said, was "not useful in determining whether" the death penalty raises, lowers or has no effect on murder rates. "We recognize that this conclusion may be controversial to some, but no one is well-served by unsupportable claims" about deterrence, said committee chair Daniel Nagin. It added that this should not be read as support for either side.⁹

Debate three: what if the jury is wrong?

The third debate is about mistakes. In 2006 a Broward County jury voted 8 to 4 to sentence Herman Lindsey to death for the 1994 killing of a pawn shop worker in Fort Lauderdale. In 2009 the Florida Supreme Court unanimously found the evidence "insufficient to support Lindsey's conviction," and he left death row a free man.¹⁰ When lawmakers made 8 votes enough in 2023, Lindsey warned: "Passing this bill, yes it will create more innocent people going to death row."¹⁰

Florida has had more death row exonerations than any other state. Among the Florida exonerations where the jury vote is known, the jury had been unanimous for death in only two.¹¹ Across the country, at least 203 people sentenced to death since 1973 have later been exonerated. For every eight people executed, one other person has been cleared.¹²

The law's backers point to a different error: at Parkland, nine of twelve jurors wanted death and did not get it. Which mistake is worse, a guilty killer spared or an innocent person condemned, is in the end another question of values.

Questions to think about

If research proved that executions prevent murders, would that settle whether they are just?

How many jurors should have to agree before a person is sentenced to death, and why that number?

How much should victims' families shape a sentence?

For the strongest arguments on each side, see our pro and con guide below.