To incarcerate a prisoner for 50 years X $40,000 = $2,000,000 if the figure per year is close.

How in the world can it cost 1 mil, to flip a switch?

I say fry'em!

The legal process including all the efforts on behalf of the convict and all the efforts on behalf of the state, over a 10 year period, costs much more than you realize.

Reminds me of that old joke with the punchline, a bill detailing expenses for an EE consultant:

Flipping the switch.................................$1.00
Knowing which switch to flip............$40,000.00

How many carreer criminals who got the death penalty ever commit another crime?

Zero....how can you top that for stoping future crimes? Great deterant becasue you won't see them in from of another judge for comiting the same crime again.

All it takes is executing one innocent person, and any perceived benefit of the death penalty becomes insignificant.

Does anyone actually believe that 100% of the people on death row are guilty? Do the numerous cases of long-time death row inmates being released due to DNA evidence not raise any concerns? Or is 99% accuracy good enough, and zapping/injecting a couple innocents is the just the price of admission?

One dead innocent man is better than setting free 100 guilty murderers.

Many would disagree with you, myself included. And your tune would quickly change if you were that one innocent man.

Regardless...who said anything about setting murderers free?

Hey, but Bone and you are onto something here. What is a reasonable ratio for guilty:Innocent?

What is the accuracy rate that we have currently do you think?

Not just murder but say, shoplifting or any crime? For example, if there was a method that guaranteed 99% accuracy, is that enough for any crime?

I guess it's too late to see if the innocents that have been wrongfully executed feel the same way.

This might surprise ya'all but I'm a fan of "This American Life" on NPR. A month or so ago, they devoted the whole hour to the story of a guy who had gotten death in a highly questionable murder case in NY. The guy was a member of a group frequently in poor standing in NY -- a caribbean rasta-man.

It was an incredible story. The judge was bound to pronounce the sentence the jury came up with (death) but he said that he was deeply troubled by it -- unusual to make such a pronouncement. The guy's best friend made it his life's work to get his friend a retrial -- managed to become a para-legal and eventually got enough evidence to prove that the guy was 99.9999% chance innocent.

When the guy was exonerated, his joy at having been released, after some 17 years on death row, was amazing to hear. He had the "yayy -monn, gohn to be irreee, monn..." rasta voice, and he sounded cool and genuine.

Major problems with the death penalty: it costs way more than just giving life w/o parole -- it precludes the opportunity to clear an innocent man, lot of people have been proven innocent with the advent of DNA testing, makes you wonder how many were killed before they could be cleared -- and, I'd rather see the guy stew in a tiny cell for life anyway, let him wallow in regret over his stupidity, it's worse IMO.

If you can guarantee 99% accuracy, doesn't that imply you can identify the 1% of innacuracies with 100% accuracy? If so, problem solved - good work!

:D

Great idea, but then that 1% is only 99% accurate, so you get that 1% and apply the same methodology but wait, it's only 99% accurate...and to solve this, call my friend Zeno at BR-549.

Thats why I don't object to the ten appeals a death row inmate has....it gives them a chance to prove innocence if it was a mistake.

Besides...a lot of these death row guys were caught in the act.

what I dont get is...
 

So if a death penalty is so expensive because of the legal fees involved - If a man with a life prison term runs the public defender through 10 appeals to get out of his life sentance, doesnt he now cost **us** more than the guy who got chaired after his 10 appeals ? or is this not the norm...

Money has nothing to do with the death penalty other than being a good political spin.

The DP Provides:

Vengance, right or wrong people want it and they deserve it if that's what they wish.

To insure that the SOB never has a moment of pleasure again.