The Conference on Empirical Legal Studies (CELS) is sponsored by the Society for Empirical Legal Studies (SELS) and Penn Law School. The conference features original empirical legal scholarship by leading scholars from a diverse range of fields. The 8th annual CELS will take place on October 25-26, 2013, at Penn Law School.
Abstract: During the 35 years since the Supreme Court’s Gregg decision and particularly in the past decade, many studies have attempted to estimate the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates. The studies have reached widely varying, even contradictory, conclusions. Some studies conclude that executions save large numbers of lives; others conclude that executions actually increase homicides; and still others conclude that executions have no effect on homicide rate. The Committee on Deterrence and the Death Penalty was convened against this backdrop of conflicting claims about the effect of capital punishment on homicide rates. The committee’s primary charge was to assess whether the available evidence provides a reasonable basis for drawing conclusions about the magnitude of capital punishment's effect on homicide rates. In this session the committee’s conclusions will be presented and discussed.