After decades of moral arguments reaching biblical proportions, after long, twisted journeys to the nation’s highest court and back, the death penalty may be abandoned by several states for a reason having nothing to do with right or wrong:
Money.
Turns out, it is cheaper to imprison killers for life than to execute them, according to a series of recent surveys. Tens of millions of dollars cheaper, politicians are learning, during a tumbling recession when nearly every state faces job cuts and massive deficits.
[…]
“It’s a waste of time and money,” said [Donald McCartin, a former California jurist known as “The Hanging Judge of Orange County”] the 82-year-old, self-described right-wing Republican whose sonorous voice still commands attention. “The only thing it does is prolong the agony of the victims’ families.”
[…]
The most recent arguments against it centered on the ever-increasing number of convicts cleared by DNA evidence.
[…]
“It’s all about money,” said McCartin, the former California judge. “The reasons I changed my mind were between that and how the victims’ families just get raped during appeals.”
0
Support the Blog — Buy This Book!
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Put this ad on your blog!
Syndicate
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Junk Email Filter
(From the article)
> Turns out, it is cheaper
> to imprison killers for
> life than to execute them
Yep. IMO, the *only* reasonable argument against capital punishment. All other “moral” arguments are specious.
#10
What you are suggesting is vengeance, not justice. If putting someone to death were cheaper, or made cheaper than life imprisonment, then that would be the appropriate solution. There is no real “morality” here. Either solution, a life of punishment or death, are both equally immoral in the name of making society safer. I can accept that but do not give me the nonsense argument that one immoral act is “more moral” than another immoral act.
#13
Some of the super-max prisons are not far from your description.
#19
> I argued its NOT
> physical punishment of
> the sort inflicted upon the victim.
Nonsense. A life of punishment is not justice; it is vengeance. Forcing someone to live that life is as unjust as killing them.
#22
> The “handling” of capital punishment
> is what costs more.
If they devise means of reducing cost of trying capital punishment cases and appeals in a way that makes it cheaper than life imprisonment, then death should be the solution. However, right now, the reality is that given all costs involved, life imprisonment is cheaper and thus the more logical solution.
Welcome on the good side, even if you only do it for the money.
current prison system is a joke.
reason: cable TV -amongst many others.
-in court..
putting a price on someones life is just
plain wrong. cost should never enter/be a factor into the decision of anyone’s
execution. -or lack thereof.
when executing someone becomes cheaper than
housing them for a lifetime, it becomes quite
obvious the systems is corrupt or being
gamed for a specific outcome.
ofc, the fact that America itself has just
been “played” in part, by the very people sworn to uphold constitution, confirms this even more. -prisons should have never been privatized to boot.
make state a court that *only deals with
murder* -in the face of obvious evidence, witnesses and precedence, murderers should, within one year max, get their day in court. -(straight to) a jury of their peers.
then give their day in the cooker and be done with them.
housing murderers only allows for the possibility of them all being freed to
kill again. -or kill during their interned lifetime.
until humans can figure out how to control
their emotions, death penalty is the only viable choice for those that would
prey on others to please themselves or just
for the hell of it..
-you waste limited resources housing them for life. resources that (for all you bleeding heart libbs) could be spent on “the iNNoCenT cHildREn” you so love to trot out to ensure you get your way.
-and forced labour isnt such a peachy idea
either. the labour quality will suck and the system will just be exploited so as to *make sure* there is always a supply of cheap labour for all the states needs. -labour that could go to someone willing to get paid or barter
for it.
history teaches this time over..
-s
fwiw:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civilian_Inmate_Labor_Program
http://www.army.mil/usapa/epubs/pdf/r210_35.pdf
-lookie what we have to look forward to next year..
-oh, and imo, there should be no Fed pens, only state/county.
and the BIGGEST point is that the GUY that robs 7/11 gets more time then the guy that ROBBED the retirement funds at ANY CORP…
and that the person with $1,000,000 gets a hand slap to 5 years in a POSH prison, when the guy TRYING to feed his kids, and himself gets 10 year HARD TIME.
Putting people in jail for 20-life, at $60K per person, PER YEAR…is insane in capital punishment. esp when that person that ROBBED the retirement funds just SCREWED 100’s of people out of a FAIR life.
#42 That happens when the 7-11 guy threatens someones life. Your example isn’t apples to apples…
If the 7-11 guy came into the store and & pitched a false investment he’d get less time…
DNA evidence is more than a side issue. Where it can reliably implicate a person in a death-penalty crime, it might be used to cut through the millions of bucks of appeals and take the guilty straight to the last mile.
“Your choice, McGurk. DNA test equals positive; you die this afternoon. Otherwise it’s life without possibility. Pick one.”
It is official; Netcraft now confirms: the Death Penalty is dying
One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered the Death Penalty community when IDC confirmed that the Death Penalty market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming close on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that the Death Penalty has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we’ve known all along. the Death Penalty is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don’t need to be a Kreskin to predict the Death Penalty’s future. The hand writing is on the wall: the Death Penalty faces a bleak future. In fact there won’t be any future at all for the Death Penalty because the Death Penalty is dying. Things are looking very bad for the Death Penalty. As many of us are already aware, the Death Penalty continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
All major surveys show that the Death Penalty has steadily declined in market share. the Death Penalty is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If the Death Penalty is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. the Death Penalty continues to decay. Nothing short of a cockeyed miracle could save the Death Penalty from its fate at this point in time. For all practical purposes, the Death Penalty is dead.
43,
I hope someone screws up your retirement fund..
Oh, they did.
with BUSH jr, and the corps Filings, I would bet that there is a good 100,000 people WONDERING if they will be able to pay RENT/mortgage/TAXES in the next few years.
Also understand something interesting..
That MANY corps, AT the top, dont pay Social security..They pay directly into a retirement fund. the Corp files Bankruptcy or the FUNDS are stolen, and THOSE people go onto SS, automatically..Even tho they havnt PAID IN..
# 46 ECA said, “That MANY corps, AT the top, dont pay Social security..They pay directly into a retirement fund. the Corp files Bankruptcy or the FUNDS are stolen, and THOSE people go onto SS, automatically..Even tho they havnt PAID IN..”
Actually false. People pay in based on their salary. Companies don’t pay nor do companies collect.
You need to get your facts straight.