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DEL.ICIO.USHigh cost of death penalty: Worth it?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Whether you believe the death penalty is moral or immoral, what about the cost to taxpayers? Cara H. Drinan, law professor at The Catholic University in Washington discusses the $2 million Georgia has spent on the Brian Nichols case- and he has not even come to trial yet. Read column here. Death penalty cases, she argues, have virtually ruined Georgia’s once highly acclaimed statewide indigent defense system. “… replace the death penalty without life without parole, as New Jersey has recently done,” she argues. New Jersey legislators, she writes, “were able to satisfy their constituents that the death penalty simply was not worth its prohibitive price.”
Is it worth the price?
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By James
May 16, 2008 11:50 AM | Link to this
Can we afford not to ………..
Eccl. 8:11 “When the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, the hearts of the people are filled with schemes to do wrong.”
By Copyleft
May 16, 2008 11:54 AM | Link to this
The inevitable reply from many of our ignorant neighbors will be “The death penalty should be MUCH cheaper… and faster! Don’t allow appeals, don’t waste time with extended prison terms—just fry ‘em/shoot ‘em right thar in the courtroom! Yeee-haaa!”
To them, I point out this simple fact:
*KENANSVILLE, NC – An innocent man who spent 14 years on North Carolina’s death row after being wrongfully convicted for a 1987 murder was released from prison recently.
Levon “Bo” Jones, an African-American man who has always maintained his innocence, was sentenced to death in 1993 for the murder of Leamon Grady, a white man. Jones is the fifth innocent death row inmate to be exonerated in the United States in the past 11 months, and the third innocent North Carolina death row inmate to be granted release in the past six months. He is the 129th death row exoneree since 1973.”
What would become of Levon Jones in your string-em-up fast ‘n’ cheap scenario of “justice”? Remember: he was INNOCENT, and yet he was convicted.
By Dr. Sapphire
May 16, 2008 12:22 PM | Link to this
THE 60th CELEBRATION OF THE PALESTINIAN 2nd COLONIAL STRUGGLE
The USA has been defamed and placed at divine risk of destruction by GOD because President Bush and government leaders continue to steal USA taxes to fund the apartheid, racist stolen state of zion in the land of the nation of Palestine. Israel is the root of our Middle East problems and is a terrorist state against Palestinians.
The least that all people of justice should do is to ignore the zoin occupation celebrations by celebrating the continued struggles of Palestinians of all religions. Celebrate at your level of comfort but do something; wear pro-Palestine or anti-israel/zionist buttons, wear traditional Palestinian scarves and clothing, play Palestinian music, learn and celebrate their cultures. Liberation and anti-colonial organizations should schedule teaching sessions in centers, mosque, churches and schools to teach youth of all cultures about Palestine. Write Palestine over the word Israel on maps! Teaching the truth about the zionist movement of israel and how western Europe and it’s empire child the USA governments are perpetuating Colonialism in ME with our tax money that we need at HOME here in the USA.
Those who are braver can at least inform their government representatives that they do not support israel and Egypt being on the USA welfare roll sucking up the USA tax payers monies to support an unjust occupation. The occupation of Israel is guaranteed by GOD/Allah/The Eternity of a Final Truth and Justice to fall into ignominy and shame. Most Americans do not want this nation to be dragged down with israel but the leaders are allowing this to happen.
If Americans fear zoinist and do not protest against this 60 year colonial scam then what are we? We have to organize local national pro-Palestine struggle celebrations, this year, to show others and especially ourselves that we have at least the spines of sardines.
Silent during this year is blatantly cowardly and fearfulness to the degree of inactivity and paralysis of struggle for justice is disbelief which signals the death of Believers and HOPE.
We could all be Palestinians if the zionist regime/Western Europe/USA governments had chosen to push us out of our mother nations to ease their guilt about their Jewish Holocaust.
By RealityKing
May 16, 2008 1:46 PM | Link to this
The $2 million Georgia has spent on the Brian Nichols case??
Most of this so-called $2 million cost is actually part of our bloated bureaucratic budget, money that is spent/wasted every year, one way or the other, regardless of how many cases are filed before the court. AND.., the additional cost to the taxpayer for keeping Brian incarcerated for the rest of his life is approx 1 million per yr, for 50+ yrs. $50+ million. A far, far greater cost than these, his last few trials in front of our bloated, backasswards system.
Brian’s life sentence will cost the taxpayer $50+ million; it is his death that will actually save taxpayer money.
By Craig
May 16, 2008 5:51 PM | Link to this
Effective punishment (assuming one’s thought processes have not “evolved” to the extent that punishment has become a pre-“post-modern” anachronism) is characterized by swiftness and certainty. So, let’s make capital punishment much more quick and much more certain. Would the costs of a tightly supervised state-level capital defense team of highly-trained defense attorneys(a capital defense office on a par with the AG and not one built on the Nichols’ team-model))outweigh the benefits of removing the snail’s-paced uncertainty of the present “system?” And, by the way, do Nichols’ attorneys really think that regular Georgians aren’t sophisticated enough to appreciate that the attorneys are more interested in trying to spend capital defense out of existence than in defending their client?