Could anyone really argue against the death penalty for the scum that murdered (and God only knows what else)?

I'm from the US and my answer is based on the system we have here.

For the worst crimes, life without parole is better, for many reasons. I’m against the death penalty not because of sympathy for criminals but because it doesn’t reduce crime, prolongs the anguish of families of murder victims, costs a whole lot more than life in prison, and, worst of all, risks executions of innocent people.

You wrote about costs. They are far higher for the death penalty than any other punishment. Study after study has found that the death penalty is much more expensive than life in prison. The process is much more complex than for any other kind of criminal case. The largest costs come at the pre-trial and trial stages. These apply whether or not the defendant is convicted, let alone sentenced to death.

Examples- trial costs (death penalty and non death penalty cases, California):

People v. Scott Peterson, Death Penalty Trial

$3.2 Million Total

People v. Rex Allen Krebs Death Penalty Trial

$2.8 Million Total

People v. Cary Stayner, Death Penalty Trial

$2.368 Million Total

People v. Robert Wigley, Non-Death Penalty Trial

$454,000 Total

This data is for cases where the best records have been kept.

Some factors:

• more pre-trial time will be needed to prepare: cases typically take a year to come to trial

• more pre-trial motions filed and answered

• more experts will be hired

• twice as many attorneys will be appointed for the defense, and a comparable team for the prosecution

• jurors must be individually quizzed on their views about the death penalty, and they are more likely to be sequestered

• two trials instead of one will be conducted: one for guilt and one for punishment

• the trial will be longer: a cost study at Duke University estimated that death penalty trials take 3 to 5 times longer than typical murder trials

The numbers vary from state to state, but they all point in the same direction. From a fairly typical state study of the costs of the death penalty:

“The study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases. The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).” (Kansas: Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections)

Edit about DNA: DNA evidence is available from less than 10% of all crime scenes. It cannot guarantee innocent people won't be executed.

I am old enough to remember the death penalty and I was opposed to it for the reasons given by Des. However things have changed a lot since then with technology and in particular DNA. We can now ensure that we don't convict an innocent person. We are seeing some horrendous crimes such as little children being literally tortured to death, as was the case of baby P or old ladies being robbed, raped and murdered. What do these criminals get? Little more than an ASBO or a driving offence. It's time we brought back the death penalty and rid the world of such scum.

Jails are too soft here in Ireland & in U.K. If you ever watched 'Banged Up Abroad' & some of the jails in south America & Thailand, etc that is what they should be having to put up with for the rest of their lives, or like in Japan they do hard labour... here where we live they get 3 meals a day, can get an education, they have it too soft......... hard labour & jail for life..with 30 to a large cell, sleeping on the floor, .......... I would agree with hanging but would torture the b*stards first if we are 100% sure it was them who did it...... paedophiles & child killers should be tortured as they won't change & take a child's innocence.......... I am very sad over what happened to this poor girl, really upset me when I heard they found her body but am also so angry at that scum ....... how could a mother/grandmother not put that girl first & leave her with that drug dealer........... so selfish & some people should never have kids........... that mother if you could call her that should be sterilized

1. Killing them doesn't bring the girl back

2. No point in killing them

3. More expensive than life without parole

4. Defeats what punishment is about

5. it could put an innocent person who's been convicted at risk.

personally i havent got an opinion on the death penalty, it's a tricky subject

@ asker 1. Therefore, to stop them re-offending, we should do what punishment is about - reformation.

2. Again, you should reform them

3. Lengthy court cases and appeals etc. end up making death penalties cost between 1.2 million and 3.6 million per case. LWOP costs around $40,000 annually per person

4. no, punishment is about showing them that what theyve done is wrong so they can learn from it and reform

5. There's been some (admittedly rare) recent cases eg. Carlos DeLuna

Let the bastard rot in prison for the rest of his life. Life should mean life and not the paltry few years it has been reduced to.

When the death penalty was abolished the life sentence was supposed to have replaced it. That and a judge recommending that a person does a certain amount of years in jail. All this seems to have gone out of the window due to liberal bleeding heart reformers.

i agree with the death penalty 100% - providing that's what the victim's family wants. the whole argument about miscarriage of Justice is now floored - DNA evidence can prove if someone is the killer. but if theres a tiny amount of DNA evidence (say a single hair/skin cell) that should mean life in prison due to possibility of being accidentally there

Of course I agree with you for good it will do. There has been much worse murders and no-one has got the death sentence back.If Margarat Thatchers government could not do it none of the others will

The murder of Stephen Lawrence was the ideal oppertunity to re introduce capital punishment,but my proposals were rejected.

ever heard of the birmingham 6?

that's one of many reasons why I am against the death penalty.

[and lets look at that bastion of justice, texas......a few days ago they executed a guy with an IQ of 61..........start with executing paedo's and it's just a slippery slope all the way down]

I don't believe in the death penalty, its too quick and too final. If our jails weren't so cushy and didn't house people with the same intellect as him, life would be terrible. Remove the tvs, gyms and perks and make the prisoners dig roads or make chain gangs.

I totally agree with Tigerlilly, bang them up for good, no parole ever and hard labour.

If they knew life meant life and going inside would be their worst nightmare they'd think twice - perhaps.