So, serial killers and murdering pedophiles should be forgiven and no

[Gerr]

Quote:

That's what happens in places like Afghanistan...one of those barbaric practices that the US army is supposed to be there to eradicate.

AJ

Barbarism, like beauty, is probably in the eye of the beholder. The Moslems no doubt consider our society barbaric where it's unsafe to walk our city streets at night. And we look at their treatment of women and execution of criminals without the due process as given in our courts and we consider them barbaric.

[Bravus]

The cost argument, as it applies in America, is fraught with other issues. America today is one of the most incarcerated societies in the world and in history - about 1% of all Americans are imprisoned. The vast majority of these are *not* for murder, but for various drug offences. Watch this video.

If the goal is to cut costs, killing people is probably not the first step to be taken. Dealing with laws that lock people away for long periods for stealing a few biscuits might be a better start.

[LifeHiscost]

It is the responsibility of the state or federal government to keep dangerous people from harming others.

You may think a level three sex offender should be released but most don't want them out with access to those he will harm.

In posting that scenario I was alluding to something so ludicrous I thought no one would mistake it for a possible viable solution, no matter what the perpetrator's level of moral turpitude. It does sometimes appear that some believe God to be much more interested in saving the perpetrator than protecting the innocent, if there is such a thing. This might be the reason one could draw that conclusion.

"But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;" Matthew 5:44 KJV

"For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”"Luke 19:10 NLT

OTOH, these injunctions are meant to give the miscreants time to make up there mind Who can be trusted and who cannot, while the promise below indicates the true nature of the One Who desires all to be saved for eternity.

"And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."

Matthew 10:28 KJV

"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.Romans 10:12 KJV

JOY!!

[Gerr]

Why do you think is that?

1) We do a better job catching criminals?

2) We criminalize even trivial stuff?

3) Lax immigration laws that allows other nations' riffraff to come in?

4) We have too much liberty?

5) Lax law enforcement that encourages MORE crime?

6) None of the above?

Solution?

Decriminalize crime?

[Tom Wetmore]

And if it costs more to put someone to death than actually keeping them in prison, there seems to be something wrong with that picture???? Personally I don't believe that for one minute.

Part of the increased cost is the cost of investigating and prosecuting and the inevitable appeals of a capital case and the fact that death row is a higher cost facility.

Just one state, the one where I live -

Quote:

New Study Reveals Maryland Pays $37 Million for One Execution

A new study released by the Urban Institute on March 6, 2008 forecasted that the lifetime expenses of capitally-prosecuted cases since 1978 will cost Maryland taxpayers $186 million. That translates into at least $37.2 million for each of the state’s five executions since the state reenacted the death penalty. The study estimates that the average cost to Maryland taxpayers for reaching a single death sentence is $3 million - $1.9 million more than the cost of a non-death penalty case. (This includes investigation, trial, appeals, and incarceration costs.) The study examined 162 capital cases that were prosecuted between 1978 and 1999 and found that those cases will cost $186 million more than what those cases would have cost had the death penalty not existed as a punishment. At every phase of a case, according to the study, capital murder cases cost more than non-capital murder cases.

Of the 162 capital cases, there werer 106 cases in which a death sentence was sought but not handed down in Maryland. Those cases cost the state an additional $71 million compared to the cost non-death penalty cases. Those costs were incurred simply to seek the death penalty where the ultimate outcome was a life or long-term prison sentence.

(“Death penalty costs Md. more than life term,” by Jennifer McMenamin, The Baltimore Sun, March 6, 2008). Read the entire study here .

For more state info - Costs of the Death Penalty

[phkrause]

Thanks Tom for the reply, but it still seems to me that there's something wrong with that picture. Obviously someone is charging way to much money. Maybe that's one reason the states are going broke. Pretty sick if you ask me.