My Thoughts: The Death Penalty

An eye for an eye. I believe the best punishment for death, is death. This won't be popular with some or a lot of people, but don't quit reading yet. At least hear me out. My beef isn't with having the death penalty, it's with the costs of this system.

Some people will argue that life in prison is better because they'll have to spend the rest of their lives repenting and living in a horrible environment. You can't be serious. Where are all you religious folks at now? I would think that people of faith would love the death penalty. If these people die, they'll go to Hell, right? So, life in prison is worse than Hell? If my understanding of Hell is correct, I'd say Hell is worse. Maybe that's just me. And why would people want these monsters to be able to repent anyway? Yes, let's have them do WHATEVER they want, no matter how horrible and THEN give them the chance to beg God's forgiveness.

Why spend billions upon billions of dollars keeping these monsters alive? Kill them and get it over with. Here's an idea, how about we take the billions and billions of dollars and kick start the economy again?!? We could start some kind of program to help the homeless get back on their feet. Or how about our enormous national debt? What am I thinking? That's much too easy. Let's just let millions of Americans and their families suffer. Yep, sounds like a brilliant idea. Okay, I did a little bit of research, here's what I'm talking about:

1953 - 131 people under sentence of death (first year I could find)
2000 - 3601 people under sentence of death (highest since it's inception)
2007 - 3220 people under sentence of death (last year I could find)

At year's end 2007, the youngest person under sentence of death was 19. Oldest, 92.

1953 - 62 inmates executed
2000 - 85
2007 - 42

Just for California: "Using conservative rough projections, the Commission estimates the annual costs of the present (death penalty) system to be $137 million per year" - deathpenaltyinfo.org

Not impressed yet? Alright try this on. Again, just for California: "The additional cost of confining an inmate to death row, as compared to the maximum security prisons where those sentenced to life without the possibility of parole ordinarily serve their sentences, is $90,000 per year per inmate. With California's current death row population of 670, that accounts for $63.3 million annually." - deathpenaltyinfo.org

Look at all the money we're wasting. And that's just California. What about the other 49 states?
I believe the reasonable solution is to eliminate the people who have been on death row for decades. Clearly they're guilty if they've been there that long, ya know? So, I did a little more hunting and found that a 22 caliber bullet costs $0.38 a piece. You see where I'm going, don't you? Spend $0.38 on each inmate that has been on death row for decades. Say there are 1,000 inmates across the country that fit this criteria. Now, say that the average cost of death row compared to life without parole nation wide is $50,000. I just saved the country $50 million not counting the cost of bullets. These are probably low guesses as well.

On to the inmates that have been on death row for less than a decade. Take the $50 million that I just saved the tax payers and put it towards in-depth investigations to make sure that the inmates are actually guilty. The ones that might not be guilty, give them compensation and some kind of ceremony nationally apologizing for the mistake. Hell, I don't know. For the ones who are guilty....spend the $0.38. It would take a lot of time and money, but once we get the problem solved, it would work out for the greater good. It would only be a problem until we got through all the current death row inmates. We would have a better, less costly system for the future inmates.

Life with or without parole. Other than the horrific cost, is there really a difference between this and death row? I don't see one. If what you did is bad enough for tax payers to have to pay for the rest of your life, who needs you around? I don't. Because I REALLY want to pay for you to watch TV and lift weights your whole life. This is horseshit. Parole or no, if you are sentenced to life, I'll gladly spend the $0.38.

If this were a nationally accepted policy, many problems with the prison system would be forever eradicated. No one would be set free early because of over-crowding. Hell, no more over-crowding in general. And the amount of spending would be a fraction of a fraction of what we are spending now. I don't see how this can fail.