Some people support the death penalty to deliver justice, while others argue it deters future murders and saves lives. But a simple proof shows the death penalty deters more than life without parole: look at the choices murderers make when facing trial.
Time and again, mass murderers plead for life without parole to avoid execution. Without the threat of the death penalty, they would have no reason to negotiate.
This week, Bryan Kohberger, accused of brutally murdering four Idaho college students in 2022, became the latest to want life in prison over the death penalty—just weeks before his August trial.
Prominent killers frequently take similar plea deals. Patrick Crusius, who murdered 23 people in a racially motivated 2019 Walmart shooting in El Paso, accepted a plea deal in March 2025. James Holmes, who killed 12 and injured 70 in the 2012 Aurora, Colorado, theater shooting, pleaded guilty in 2015 to avoid execution.
Others who also struck plea deals to avoid the death penalty include:
Jared Lee Loughner, who murdered six and injured 13, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (2011),
Dylann Roof, who killed nine at a Charleston church (2015),
Eric Rudolph, who bombed the 1996 Atlanta Olympics,
Nikolas Cruz, the Parkland school shooter who killed 17, pleaded guilty in a successful attempt to avoid a death sentence.
Francisco Oropeza, who murdered five neighbors in neighbors in San Jacinto County, Texas (2023).
Some killers, like Nidal Hasan (who killed 13 at Fort Hood in 2009), sought plea deals but couldn’t get them. Military law blocked Hasan’s deal.
While Democrats oppose the death penalty, Americans support it by a 3-to-2 margin. And their support would rise to more than 2-to-1 if death sentences were carried out on a more timely basis. Those with the lowest incomes—who often face the most crime—back it most strongly.
Critics argue that the death penalty is too expensive. But threatening it often reduces costs by prompting plea bargains. These plea deals avoid costly trials and appeals. As part of the plea agreement, the murderers agree not to appeal their conviction.
Today, 27 states permit the death penalty, but only 11 states and the federal government have carried out executions since 2020. Montana has not executed anyone since 2006 due to court rulings. Under President Trump, the federal government executed 13 people; under Biden, none.
These cases show that murderers fear death more than life in prison. But there is other research supporting its deterrent effect. Indeed, most peer-reviewed studies estimate that each execution prevents eight to eighteen murders. What is saving at least eight lives worth?
Some point to the National Research Council’s 2012 report that could reach a conclusion on the death penalty deterring crime, but they fail to acknowledge that the National Research Council virtually never comes to a conclusion on any topic except for claiming that more research is needed.
Some claim the death penalty is racially biased. But data suggests otherwise. From 1977 to 2011, whites made up 64.7% of executions despite committing only 47% of murders. In 2020, 64% of those executed were still white.
Concerns about executing the innocent are unfounded. Between 1989 and 2014, DNA evidence was available in about 12,000 murder cases. The Innocence Project identified 34 people wrongly convicted, 18 of whom were on death row—none were executed.
DNA exonerations remain extremely rare.
On his first day in office, President Trump signed a sweeping executive order reinstating the federal death penalty. He directed the attorney general to “take all necessary and lawful action” to ensure states had sufficient lethal injection drugs to carry out executions. Trump defended the order, stating: “Capital punishment is an essential tool for deterring and punishing those who would commit the most heinous crimes.”
The murderers’ own actions confirm Trump’s point—deterrence works.
That is quite a switch from Biden who recently commuted death sentences to life sentences for 37 of the 40 men who are on the federal government’s death row. Those spared included child killers and mass murderers, and many showed no remorse and horribly tortured their victims.
The death penalty saves lives and taxpayer dollars. When used strategically, it delivers justice, deters crime, and secures plea deals that spare victims' families from prolonged trials.
John R. Lott Jr. is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center. He is the author most recently of “Gun Control Myths.”