Read the paragraph below. Then answer the question.
(1) The death penalty is popular with voters, who are frightened of violent crime, but it is not very effective in reducing the murder rate. (2) In the 1960s and 1970s, when murder rates were lower than today, the death penalty was hardly ever used. (3) Even today, the states that use the death penalty most also often have the highest murder rates. (4) In addition, every death sentence costs taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in appeals and lawyers’ fees. (5) The number of executions that take place in a state doesn’t seem to matter either. (6) There have actually been some years in which states that had many executions experienced higher homicide rates than states with fewer executions.
Which statement is the point of the argument?