Death Row and Newark, NJ

"Largely lost in this debate, however, are two important facts (Katz, Levitt and Shustorovich, 2003). First, given the rarity with which executions are carried out in this country and the long delays in doing so, a rational criminal should not be deterred by the threat of execution. Despite increases in capital punishment in recent years, the likelihood of being executed conditional on committing murder is still less than 1 in 200. Even among those on death row, the annual execution rate is only 2 percent, or twice the death rate from accidents and violence among all American men. Among the subsample of individuals engaged in illegal activities, the death rates are likely to be much higher. Levitt and Venkatesh (2000) report a death rate of 7 percent annually for street-level drug sellers in the gang they analyze. Kennedy, Piehl and Braga (1996) estimate violent death rates to be 1–2 percent annually among all gang members in Boston. It is hard to believe the fear of execution would be a driving force in a rational criminal’s calculus in modern America."

There's a good chance I'm misreading this quote (anything I write past midnight is suspect), but I will venture an interpretation anyway. Because the death rate is actually higher for street-level drug sellers in gangs than the annual execution rate of those on death row (7% versus 2%), if a rational drug dealer's sole goal were to stay alive, he would preferably go to death row than to the dangerous streets of Newark, NJ.