Hanging is offered as an option, if chosen by the prisoner under sentence of death. If the prisoner does not make a choice, execution is by lethal injection. We are all concerned about crime, and would like the rate of crime to be reduced. The death penalty, however, is not an effective deterrent to crime. While the individual executed would certainly not commit another crime, research indicates the death penalty does not serve as a general deterrent to crime, that is, having the death penalty does not reduce the overall rate of crime.
Murder rates are lower in states that have abolished the death penalty.
In 1990, there was an average of 5.0 homicides per 100,000 population in states that had abolished the death penalty. In death penalty states without executions, the homicide rate was 6.0 per 100,000. While murder rates have indeed increased everywhere in the past ten years, they have increased more in states with the death penalty. The reason is simple. The overwhelming majority of murders are irrational and passionate acts.