I have always been for the death penalty but I am starting to have second thoughts. (Not that I care about the scum bags)
In Kansas it cost more than twice as much to try a death penalty case.
By the time the convicted runs all the appeals etc. it's cost about $14million. This is an estimate because so far no one has been put to death under our new law.
It cost $30thousand a year to house them in prison.
IMO why don't they abolish the death penalty and put all VIOLENT criminals in the same prison area and if they kill each other, so what. This seems like more of a deterrant than sitting 15 years on death row.
This is not cruel and unusual punishment any more than what they did to get in prison.
We are giving too much to the criminals, but you all know that.[:'(]
We could also save money by not building all these new facilities.
I know of convicts that request ransfer to the new facilities, and get their wishs. This is BS.
I do support the death penalty, and I think it does serve as a deterrant. If these inmates on death row didn't care about being put to death then they wouldn't fight so hard to appeal their sentence.
I think that the our appeals process needs to be revamped and streamlined. No more multiple appeals filed for each separate grounds. I think that death penalty appeals (and all others for that matter) should be a one shot deal. The appeals lawyer goes over the inmates case thoroughly and then cites each and every grounds for the appeal. The appeal then goes one time up the ladder where the appeals courts review all the cited grounds and issue their final ruling. For death penalty cases there should still be the mandatory automatic review by the state supreme court. Death penalty cases would be given top priority. And once the appeal is denied at the highest level (U.S. Supreme Court), the death warrant would be immediately issued and sent to the Governor for final review. If the governor refuses to grant clemency or commute their sentence, the condemned should then be taken immediately away and executed. Fair yet swift and efficient. A condemned prisoner shouldn't spend any more than one year on death row waiting for the appeals process to be complete.
IMO why don't they abolish the death penalty and put all VIOLENT criminals in the same prison area and if they kill each other, so what.
That is a great idea, really.
I just think that we shouldn't worry about killing them "with hygiene" it is such a waste of our tax-dollars! Just stick in the needle and let them die! Or just shoot them in the head!
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ANNOY A LIBERAL, work hard and be happy.
I do support the death penalty, and I think it does serve as a deterrant. If these inmates on death row didn't care about being put to death then they wouldn't fight so hard to appeal their sentence.
I think that the our appeals process needs to be revamped and streamlined. No more multiple appeals filed for each separate grounds. I think that death penalty appeals (and all others for that matter) should be a one shot deal. The appeals lawyer goes over the inmates case thoroughly and then cites each and every grounds for the appeal. The appeal then goes one time up the ladder where the appeals courts review all the cited grounds and issue their final ruling. For death penalty cases there should still be the mandatory automatic review by the state supreme court. Death penalty cases would be given top priority. And once the appeal is denied at the highest level (U.S. Supreme Court), the death warrant would be immediately issued and sent to the Governor for final review. If the governor refuses to grant clemency or commute their sentence, the condemned should then be taken immediately away and executed. Fair yet swift and efficient. A condemned prisoner shouldn't spend any more than one year on death row waiting for the appeals process to be complete.
Mike
Mike, I agree about the usefulness of the death penalty. It is deserved in many instances and it is a deterrent. The person who kidnapped and murdered the little girl in Florida is an example. This is a person who needs to be executed....with all due process, and in due time.
You said "If the governor refuses to grant clemency or commute their sentence, the condemned should then be taken immediately away and executed." I think I know what you mean here.....and I am by no means a "bleeding heart" when it comes to murderers.
But there have been lots of guys on death row who have been proven innocent by such means as DNA evidence (a recent tool)....and subsequently been set free many, many years later. It would be a shameful travesty in a great democracy to execute an innocent person. What if it were you or someone close to you and the allegations toward you were false? We need to spend the time and money to make sure we are doing the right thing. Some cases are much easier when multiple witnesses see the crime being committed. However, at other times justice...to be fair and prudent must become a slower process. This is a subject that requires a great deal of wisdom and compassion from all of us....even when the crime is horrendous and ghastly. For if we execute an innocent man, we can never return what we have taken away.
What really gets me is someone convicted and sentenced to death on death row for 5 years. NC executed a murderer last year and they announced he was convicted in 1998 and lost his last appeal in 2000.
Why was he in prision for 3 years before he was killed? Why did we have to keep him up for 3 years? It's not like there was a long wait to the gas chamber.
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Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things.
The death penalty is a great idea if it is carried out properly and there is absolutly no doubt what so ever that the criminal is guilty of such a crime.
If there is absolutly no doubt at all that said person did the crime (caught on video, multiple eye witnesses, etc...) then the death sentence should be carried out immediately or do not place them on death row in the first place. There should be no need for an appeals process in the first place it should be 100% cut and dry if the death penalty is handed out.
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"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency........... Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."
I agree that executing an innocent man is a travesty. I do think that every effort should be made to ensure that the condemned is in fact guilty, and that should happen at the trial and/or during the appeals process. But exactly how long should we wait for new evidence to emerge before accept that the guy's guilty and carry out the sentence? One year? Ten? 20? 30?
It's well documented that there have been men placed on death row, and even some executed, that were later proven through advanced forensic technology that didn't exist at the time not guilty. But we have these tools available today, and we should use them to swiftly carry out justice for those convicted today. Like I said, I think that capital appeals should be given top priority. The appeals process could be made much swifter if our justice system in general could dedicate more resources to ensuring that due process is carried out in these critical cases, rather than occupying judges with lawsuits filed by lazy gluttons against fast food restaurants because they weren't told that 4 Whoppers a day would make them fat.
The system could be made swifter while still observing due process and ensuring that all reasonable doubt is removed before someone is executed. I just don't think that it should take 15 years to do it. No more partial appeals, each one taking months or years to complete, at which time another appeal is filed. Make them do it all at once, and once the process is complete then there is no reason not to carry out the sentence.
Death penalty?
