VGC Debate/Poll: The Death Penalty

[elprincipe]

Commando said:
OK their are some good points here. My only question with the court cost thing, is hou is the court proceedings more costly in a conviction of Capitol Punishment as opposed to Life imprissionment.

I mean I guess I'm asking how could killing someone in the end rather than leaving them in jail somehow make the trials and appeals (that have already happened) cost more.

Good question.  The main point to consider is that the appeals process for death penalty cases is much more exhaustive than for other cases.  Higher courts are more likely to take an appeal for a death penalty case, since we are after all discussing a human being's very life and not simply his imprisonment.  I'm not certain as to the guidelines, but I do know it's much more likely that a death penalty case appeal will be heard by a higher court than an appeal of a conviction of burglary, for example.

So basically the more appeals are heard, the more court costs there are.  Courts are expensive, with judges and prosecutors and public defenders for the accused all getting paid.  These cases are argued quite thoroughly since a life is at stake.  In the end, all these costs end up being more than it would have been to just keep the person in prison for the rest of his life.

But in any case, basing your opinion here on the actual cost is not really reasonable, unless you feel that a human life can have a cost associated with it.  To be frank, even if it cost more to imprison someone for life than to put them to death I'd still be against it, because my position is determined by the morality of the issue and not by monetary concerns.  I'm sure people who are for the death penalty feel the same way (but have come to the opposite conclusion, obviously).  I doubt anyone here would seriously argue that someone should be put to death because it's "too expensive" to let them live...right?