Orange-Osceola State Attorney Aramis Ayala’s refusal to seek the death penalty in a state that has carried out more executions than all but three others — Texas, Oklahoma and Virginia — has thrust her office into uncharted legal territory in Florida.

Ayala, elected in November, said she will not pursue the ultimate punishment, even in the most heinous cases, because the legal journey to the death chamber is too costly, takes too long and does not work as a deterrent to future murders.

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“The idea that the death penalty would reduce crime is a little bit like saying rain dancing is going to produce rain,” said John Donohue, a law professor at Stanford University, who has evaluated a number of studies on whether the death penalty deters crime. “It’s probably about as strong a finding as you can get. There is no statistical study that has given us any reason to believe the death penalty reduces murder.”

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Donohue, the law professor from Stanford, pointed to a comparison between Hong Kong, which abolished executions, and Singapore, which increased its use of capital punishment, that shows “virtually no difference” in the trend of murder rates.