Theocracy alive and well in Utah (and considerations of the death penalty)

xwhydoyoureyesx writes:

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the only proper justice for murder is the death penalty.

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Says who? You? Why is there no other way to establish justice?Be specific.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!

xwhydoyoureyesx responds to me:

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Some people think that life sentences are the answer but i can't really reconcile the two.

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And on the other side, there are people that cannot reconcile punishment of killing with more killing.

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The victim is still dead,

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Indeed, so what does killing the killer accomplish?

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and as a side note It costs money

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Much more money than sentencing someone to life.

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I suppose it boils down to opinion.

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But the arguments against the death penalty given here so far have been based upon the practical functioning of it: The system isn't perfect, innocent people will be killed, thus even if we agree that killers deserve to be killed, it cannot be carried out in a way that only hits those who deserve it.Another post in this thread pointed out to the Illinois investigation that found 13 of the people on death row were innocent. What it didn't mention was that there were only 25 people on death row at the time. Half of the people on death row did not do the crime they were charged with.If we're going to argue questions of morality, I guess it comes down to which one is the more important, letting the punishment fit the crime or it being better to let 100 guilty people go free than to let one innocent person suffer?more[/i] to execute somebody than it does to sentence him to life imprisonment------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM![This message has been edited by Rrhain, 09-12-2003]

xwhydoyoureyesx responds to me:

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Why exactly does it cost more to kill someone than to house them for the rest of their lives?

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Because trials are expensive. It is the very rare case that goes straight from conviction to execution. The Tim McVeigh's who waive appeals are few and far between.It costs about $2-3 million to execute a person as it goes through the process of trial and appeal. Given that it costs about $25,000/year to house somebody in jail, a person would need to live for about 80 years in jail in order to have it cost as much as execution.------------------
Rrhain
WWJD? JWRTFM!