After decades of moral arguments reaching biblical proportions, after long, twisted journeys to the nation's highest court and back, the death penalty may be abandoned by several states for a reason having nothing to do with right or wrong:
Money.
Turns out, it is cheaper to imprison killers for life than to execute them, according to a series of recent surveys. Tens of millions of dollars cheaper, politicians are learning, during a tumbling recession when nearly every state faces job cuts and massive deficits.
So an increasing number of them are considering abolishing capital punishment in favor of life imprisonment, not on principle but out of financial necessity.
"It's 10 times more expensive to kill them than to keep them alive," though most Americans believe the opposite, said Donald McCartin, a former California jurist known as "The Hanging Judge of Orange County" for sending nine men to death row.
"Most Americans" are not very bright, so I don't know why we'd ever want to do anything based on popular opinion.
I'd also point out that I've been making this argument for years.. and it's just typical of really stupid people to figure it out after the shit has already hit the fan. It hasn't just been "recent studies". We've known for decades it costs far more to kill somebody than to lock them up for life.
Which, of course, means that since I'm right about most things now, if society would simply adopt my policy views today, we'll avoid having to experience catastrophe later.
But hey.. if it takes running out of money to figure out that killing prisoners is a bad thing to do, and that incarcerating more citizens per-capita than any nation in the world is a bad thing.. then.. alrighty.
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