Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
There are many people who do terrible things to others. They commit horrible crimes and they do deserve to die. I don't have a moral problem with the death penalty. I have a fiscal problem with the death penalty.
It costs significantly more to put someone to death than it does to lock them up for life. The reason is the legal proceedings surrounding the process. Tons of money gets swallowed up in legal fees and the court ends up bogged down hearing appeal after appeal and motion after motion.
I am also opposed to executing innocent people. Our justice system is flawed and these days we are seeing more and more cases where DNA evidence has proven people innocent. If there were a more streamlined way of processing death penalty cases and we changed our laws to take every precaution possible to make sure we weren't killing someone who is innocent, I wouldn't have a problem with.
The thing is, the death penalty isn't a deterrent. States with the death penalty don't have lower rates of violent or capital crimes. If a guy is going to kill 10 people, he doesn't decide not to do it because he is worried he will be put to death. It is a tool for political grandstanding and fodder meant to make the masses somehow feel like they are safer because their state has the death penalty.
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How much money did it take to clean up the cell block after Gaskins killed a man in prison with a bomb?
Do you think we saved some money by killing him instead of letting him plant 10 more bombs in prison?
Forget the "it's not a deterrent" argument, people care about justice.
And killing some of these criminals is justice.
You want to save some money then stop arresting 1 million people for weed.
Then use that money to kill the real criminals who absolutely deserve to die.
EDIT : Gaskins was in fact deterred from making another bomb when he was killed.
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