Each execution deters an average of 18 murders, according to a 2003 nationwide study by professors at Emory University.
The court considered, and rejected, the argument that executions deter violent crime.
Many expressed a hope that the executions would deter Hutu extremists from further massacres.
Study after study has shown that executions do not deter further murders.
Studies - especially older ones - differ as to whether executions deter other potential criminals from committing murder or other crimes.
Even proponents have been forced to concede that more than a century's experience has not produced credible evidence that executions deter crime.
Rational opponents rightly point out that no one has yet shown that executions deter murder.
Death-penalty proponents have not proved that executions deter murders or have any advantage over a sentence of life without parole.
Seven percent had no opinion, and 32 percent said executions do not deter.
He did not see how execution could deter this kind of crime.