All the capital deterrence that's fit to debate

The front-page of today's New York Times has this thoughtful and balanced article by Adam Liptak entitled "Does Death Penalty Save Lives? A New Debate."  (Helpfully, the web version of the article includes links to seven major recent articles about this debate.)  Here are a few snippets:

For the first time in a generation, the question of whether the death penalty deters murders has captured the attention of scholars in law and economics, setting off an intense new debate about one of the central justifications for capital punishment.

According to roughly a dozen recent studies, executions save lives. For each inmate put to death, the studies say, 3 to 18 murders are prevented. The effect is most pronounced, according to some studies, in Texas and other states that execute condemned inmates relatively often and relatively quickly....

Critics say the larger factors are impossible to disentangle from whatever effects executions may have. They add that the new studies’ conclusions are skewed by data from a few anomalous jurisdictions, notably Texas, and by a failure to distinguish among various kinds of homicide.

There is also a classic economics question lurking in the background, Professor [Justin] Wolfers said. “Capital punishment is very expensive,” he said, “so if you choose to spend money on capital punishment you are choosing not to spend it somewhere else, like policing.”  A single capital litigation can cost more than $1 million.  It is at least possible that devoting that money to crime prevention would prevent more murders than whatever number, if any, an execution would deter.

As regular readers know, I have been following this "new debate" for quite some time.  Here are just a few prior posts on this topic:

• A potent (and pernicious?) new claim in the death penalty deterrence debate
• Is the developing moratorium on executions risking innocent lives?
• A potent argument for the death penalty
• Concerns about (and blogosphere buzz on) DP paper
• Further exploration of question "Is Capital Punishment Morally Required?"
• Is capital punishment for drunk driving morally required?
• Assembling recent DP deterrence literature

UPDATE:  Professor Jack Balkin add his two cents to this debate with this new post, entitled "Does the Death Penalty Deter? Who Cares?".