Quote:
Originally posted by cain423
I think death is too easy a way out. Convicted killers should be locked into a 4X4 room with bright lights, no entertainment, no communication with the outside world. Each meal should be the same thing over and over again. Make their existence a living death, their cell a concrete coffin.
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It's been said before, but I'll say it again.
This, this wishing for pain on the part of the criminal, is the cruel and unusual punishment. It is an Old Testament sentiment, and better suited for the Middle Ages than here and now.
As for the figures provided by maximus' quiz:
I would be interested to know what the average cost of living a year in prison is, rather than Texas as an example, and the average cost of execution. Further, I would like to know how much of that is spent on appeals and other court proceedings, and how much is actually spent throwing the switch. I go now to research.
All right. I got several different numbers for average cost, but the $20,000 figure seems the best. It is from a study done in 1997 by the Department of Corrections, I think. So we'll brook that, assume it hasn't gone up. Now, the cost of the actual execution materials in Texas, where they use lethal injection, is $86.08. Not much, but big surprise, no one actually thought the method was the expensive bit. So the cost clearly lies with the 12 years(on average, from a '99 article in
Economist) that the prisoner resides on death row, and all the appeals and so forth that are filed during that span. 12 years? That is indeed cruel to make a person wait that long. I think the solution is obvious. I am not suggesting the death penalty in all cases, but there are certain times when I don't think we need to wait all that long. McVeigh. Confessed. Why did we wait so long? The law said we had to. Lawyers did their dance...anyway. The cost comes in the courtroom, not the electric chair.