09-30-2015, 01:07 PM
I'm not speaking for user; this is my opinion.
I'm not proposing keeping a death-row like environment for the purpose of deterring violent crime. I don't think that or the death penalty itself deters the worst of the worst anyway.
Keeping that environment would be for the purpose of leverage. If a killer agreed to give up locations of bodies, details of the crime, make a valid confession that could be substantiated, enter a guilty plea and save the victims and the state the emotional and financial expense of trial...for example, then the isolation that comes with a death-row like environment could be taken off the table in the same way the death penalty itself is sometimes taken off the table now.
And, user's right. Capital trials take longer and cost way more than most other trials. Then, if the defendant is convicted, he/she is entitled to a series of automatic appeals that also cost the state and the taxpayers money and puts the case and the killer back in the news, which some victims would rather not relive. Some financial analysts conclude that pursuing and carrying out the death penalty also costs more than incarcerating a murderer for life.
It would take a Supreme Court decision ruling that the death penalty is unconstitutional in order to abolish it nationwide though; it's currently a decision made by each state. I don't see that happening, at least not in the near future. The majority of people in a lot of states still strongly support the death penalty and death penalty opponents haven't had a lot of luck with Supreme Court rulings.
Refs:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29552692/ns/us...tion-cost/
http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42
I'm not proposing keeping a death-row like environment for the purpose of deterring violent crime. I don't think that or the death penalty itself deters the worst of the worst anyway.
Keeping that environment would be for the purpose of leverage. If a killer agreed to give up locations of bodies, details of the crime, make a valid confession that could be substantiated, enter a guilty plea and save the victims and the state the emotional and financial expense of trial...for example, then the isolation that comes with a death-row like environment could be taken off the table in the same way the death penalty itself is sometimes taken off the table now.
And, user's right. Capital trials take longer and cost way more than most other trials. Then, if the defendant is convicted, he/she is entitled to a series of automatic appeals that also cost the state and the taxpayers money and puts the case and the killer back in the news, which some victims would rather not relive. Some financial analysts conclude that pursuing and carrying out the death penalty also costs more than incarcerating a murderer for life.
It would take a Supreme Court decision ruling that the death penalty is unconstitutional in order to abolish it nationwide though; it's currently a decision made by each state. I don't see that happening, at least not in the near future. The majority of people in a lot of states still strongly support the death penalty and death penalty opponents haven't had a lot of luck with Supreme Court rulings.
Refs:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29552692/ns/us...tion-cost/
http://deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42