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Yes, it is good Friedman's point.
Even mass murderer who left alive witness shouldn't be maximally punished - following the same logic. (Exceptions are those who have enough power not to be frightened by law. )
Right. As sentences for lesser crimes of violence became more severe after about 1979, the death penalty would, logically, have become a more important deterrent against witness-murdering.
I don't know why this almost never comes up in discussions of whether the death penalty is effective as a deterrent.
On the robbery/murder point, I'm still amazed how little this comes up, even though Thomas More made the point something like 500 years ago in Utopia (theft/murder and the death penalty in then-England).
...and to think all this time I could have been getting away with murder for the same price at a steal!
[Comment removed for supplying false email address. Email the webmaster@econlib.org to request restoring this comment. A valid email address is required to post comments on EconLog.--Econlib Ed.]
The young James Boswell argued that robbers and highwaymen ought to be executed without exception; Samuel Johnson refuted him with exactly the same argument. This was in the 1760's and I doubt that Johnson based his reasoning on economics.
In the words of a philosopher older than western civilization: "Nothing is new under the sun."
Friedman's very good point has been echoed and ignored time and time again. Much like economists have known for many decades that raising the minimum wage increases unemployment, but everyone ignores that too and does it anyway.
Couldn't Friedman's economist be refuted by the response, "For armed robbery, we execute you. For armed robbery + murder, we torture, then execute you. For armed robbery + murder + leaving no witnesses, we torture, then revive you, then torture you, then revive you, etc. and finally we crucify you."? Seems to me there are worse things than death, such as: a horrible, prolonged death. What say ye, Kurbla?
@Bill K:
I don't recall the original source, but someone once suggested that the cure for convicted jihadists be smothering in pig fat - thus rendering the soul so unclean that even acts of "martyrdom" could not guarantee a place in heaven....