Isla Vista killing....the NRA's fault?

Perhaps, and emotionally I tend to agree, but as I have grown older and learned more about the processes, how it's possibly to kill an innocent person, etc. Then at what cost financially? Conservative estimates put the death penalty at four times the cost of lifetime incarceration in California alone since the started keeping up with it in 1978. That's a pretty steep price to kill someone because they deserve it.

A lifetime locked away is far worse, IMO...

 

Charles Manson was 34 when he was convicted for the murders of the Manson Family. He had already spent more years of his life in prison than out. If he had just continued his life as a career common criminal and not become a murderer its pretty certain he would have spent his life in prison anyway. He was already institionalized and functioned better as a convict than as a free person. His life would have been no different from what it has been anyway for the last 45 years. How is that making him pay for orgnizing a murder spree?

 

Worst state to pick for a legit comparison. "Over the last 32 years its cost California tax payers about 4 billion dollars to have the death penalty, and over that period only 13 executions have been carried out," says LMU Law Professor Paula Mitchell....
Mitchell's study, "Rethinking the Death Penalty in California," shows that once the death penalty comes into play for a case, the legal costs skyrocket to an extra $134 million dollars per year, well above the cost to implement life without possibility of parole. Death penalty cases require more attorneys, more experts, and an automatic review by the California Supreme Court, making it a seemingly endless process.

"The average time on death row is now approaching 30 years," says former San Quentin Death Row Warden Jeanne Woodford. "So we have more inmates on death row who have died by natural causes or by suicide."

Of course the folks who have been executed may not agree but.....

 

I tend to agree MLU. Over time I have turned away from the death penalty for several reasons. First I agree life in prison is a worse punishment especiially as the convict ages. While there isn't much difference between execution of an innocent and their spending a life in prison at least the prison term offers the chance of a change. Whether you use Cali or any other state the cost of execution is greater than life in prison as data shows year in and out. Finally there is the point of consistancy...how can you be anti abortion and pro death penalty. No matter the difference in the status of the victim of abortion and a convicted criminal it is still valid that taking a life in either matter is wrong. Finally as it stands now the deterant is only to the one executed as he/she won't kill again.
The only positive (if you can call it that) is for the closure and revenge the victim's close family and friends get. It is not worth it socially, fiscally or morally IMO.

 

Shocking....I agree with you.

 

That is correct if you view the arguments through the strict lens of sanctity of life with a very broad application thereof. There is of course a big difference between a baby/potential human being and a convicted murderer. One is innocent, the other not so much.

That's why I see the death penalty, not as a deterrent, but purely as a punishment. If you look at CA, it never could be a deterrent.

Is it revenge or justice? I read a lot about the idea of closure. Somehow I have to think there is no such thing when a loved when has been viciously or brutally taken from you. Even the death penalty won't bring back the victim(s).

I do believe there really are some people in this world who need to be executed....the world is a better place without them using up oxygen. I was reading yesterday about a 31 year old with HIV who had a 7 month relationship with a 17 year old and never told her about his HIV status. She has it now. That's a death sentence for the most part....at 17. Then he was caught screwing his bunkmate and THAT dude didn't know about it. This lying infected scum is likely going to continue "killing" other people. He should be put down.

I know how I would feel if someone murdered my children. Nothing would bring them back and yet it would eat at me every day to know the killer was still alive...even in prison.

 

Cameron Todd Willingham's execution sealed it for me. The death penalty is a sick anachronism of a less civilized period in our history.

 

If you're dead, then you're dead. You have no awareness of anything, you're just dead. You're telling me that life in a cell with no freedom is preferable to no sadness, no feelings of being trapped, no awareness of knowing that your freedom has been taken away? I've spent a couple nights in lockup before for stupid stuff. I'd rather not spend the rest of my life under those circumstances. Death is definitely preferable because life in that manner isn't worth living for.

The death penalty isn't for the criminal; it's for the victims and the victim's families.

 

So life is precious as long as you haven't been convicted of a capital crime? Is that is the Bible somewhere?

That's some sanctimonious bullshit...