Newspaper and journal accounts of executions from colonial through modern times demonstrate that deterrence has failed among those groups who should have been particularly susceptible to any deterrent effect. The cases cited provide evidence that public executions sparked violence in crowds that gathered to watch them, and they inspired young observers to imitate the executions, killing themselves or playmates. Lawyers and law enforcement officials who were intimately acquainted with the punishments for capital crimes have also not been deterred historically from committing them. Relatives of people executed have also frequently followed their relatives to death at the hands of the State by committing crimes they knew to be punishable by death. People with 'death wishes' have also committed murders throughout history so that they would be executed, lending credence to the idea that executions may even trigger crime. Proponents of the deterrent theory cite statistics that fail to take into account the unique circumstances of each crime and criminal, a failure that casts substantial doubt on the accuracy of their data. Footnotes are included. (Author abstract modified)