The Death Penilty

[Tobias_Marco]

<It's funny, but for some reason I thought we already had this topic.>
<I want you to consider the following fictional story.>
<Police have just arrested 20 people who call themselves "The Phone Book Killers" they call themselves this because in Jan of last year they killed everyone in your city whose last name started with the letter "A".>
<In Feb of that same years they did the same thing to everyone whose last name started with the letter "B".>
<Each person was killed in the order their name appears in the phone book.>
<Somehow they knew what houses and people were being watched by the police and passed over those houses and people.>
<In Dec of last years they reached the point where they killed everyone whose last name started with the letter "L".>
<The good news is that they haven't gotten to your family yet, or the police were watching your house and they passed you over.>
<Now these people are in jail, they vow that if they ever get out they will continue their killing spree.>
<Also in the news is a teacher who has been found guilty of sexually molesting their students.>
<What do you think should be done with these people?>
<If we imprison them for life then the tax payers will end up paying for their food, clothing and shelter for the rest of their lives.>
<If we put them to death then it will cost a whole lot less.>

[Current]

Your last premise is false. The death penalty is more expensive than keeping someone in prison for the rest of their lives. See here or just google "death penalty cost".

Lifetime imprisonment, unless rehabilitation is possible (which doesn't sound at all likely, but who knows).



(As an aside, the idea of a group of 20 people killing everyone in my city whose name starts with A-L is ridiculous. I'm sure that was meant with smaller cities in mind, 'cause here that would be a death toll of in the order of millions. Depending how you count, it would be around the number of Jewish people killed in the Holocaust. )

[Tobias_Marco]

<The point is that a whole bunch of people have already been killed, and more will be killed if this group is allowed to live outside of prison.>
<I also realize that some people might thing the 20 killers and the child molesting teacher might deserve different punishments.>

[Current]

Which is why I said lifetime imprisonment. That's a good way of not allowing them to live outside prison.

And I kinda forgot about the teacher, but yeah, they should get a lesser sentence. I'm not sure exactly how much lesser, but it's easier to keep one person from molesting children than to keep a group of superhumanly effective serial killers/genocidal maniacs from killing.

[Daphnia]

well i'm glad my last name starts with v..

i also say lifetime imprisonment. so our taxes would pay for his food, just give him crappy food, enough to keep him alive. that's what you get for killing people. I personally don't agree with death penalty, we don't have the right to take other people's (or our own) lives.

as for the teacher, a couple years in prison, and after he's out, not allowed to be within ...miles from schools or places where children are

[The_Brigadier]

A teacher molesting students? Wow. Never heard of that one before.

But no seriously, usually a teacher gets his/her licence revoked and several years in jail (or maybe a hefty fine if the lawyer is VERY good).

As for the Killers, the death penalty with no appeals process. It's alot cheaper and more convinient than letting them live.

(Current, the millions spent on the inmates of death row are actually their legal fees. If the appeals process was taken away, the actual cost of execution would be probably in the double- or low triple-digits).

[Current]

Not quite, a significant part of the costs are incurred before and during the first trial, not during appeals. See my first link.

But yes, it is theoretically possible to make the death penalty that much cheaper by reducing standards of evidence, not giving death row inmates appeals, and such. Problem being, you end up killing innocents. From what I can find, the number of people released from death row since 1973 is 130, the number of people executed is about 1,100. Data might be a few years off, but in any case it's in the order of 1 in 10. That terribly expensive judicial process is there for a reason.

(All statistics are on the US, simply because it's the easiest place to get statistics about)

[The_Brigadier]

Meh, with the way forensic (sp?) science and investigational techniques are going, the whole issue of grabbing the innocent one is becoming less of a problem (though it still might be there in the future, despite all of the advances).

[Current]

But that's an argument for, in the future, reconsidering specific aspects of the judicial process. It's not an argument for getting rid of them now.

[SamilinCorrathGahar]

<Kill them all and let whatever gods they worship sort it out!>