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Originally Posted by Varius
Based on 2008 stats, the average cost per year of a prisoner in an American prison is $76,100 so for minimum 20 years, assuming the cost stays the same, that's 1.5M give or take (and could be more, the longer the sentence and what kind of age / health the offender is in).
I understand your point, that things are gone about differently when seeking the death penalty, but yes for this to work there would have to be no change in current legal process; in brief, a death penalty case should NOT differ from a regular case and trial.
Additionally, that aside, you must also calculate the cost of reduced crime (obviously I don't know, but I'd think if thousands upon thousands of criminals started being put to quick death, a lot of people might think twice about committing a crime to begin with). Less crime = less legal and police costs, less people in prisons to have to pay for, less prisons needing to be built, etc...
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Sure if it were widespread you may actually end up reducing crime in the long run and ultimately that could save a lot of money. I guess I envision a different end to things. I could see a situation where someone is convicted of a crime, sentenced to death and killed then we find out that the person actually was innocent. Their family sues the state that put this person to death and wins a multi-million dollar settlement. This could open up a whole new can of worms
Sadly, there is no easy answer. We can either deal with massive overcrowding and costs or deal with the possible issues that come from a rapid death penalty.
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My personal opinion on that is, my chances of that happening by "being in the wrong place at the wrong time" are less than the chances of having a fatal accident, being murdered, etc... so if it happens, it's truly "my time to go". Also, if I was convicted wrongly and given a life sentence, depending on my individual jail experience today and in the future, I might wish that I was simply killed as opposed to suffering for 20-30 years then being set free, having missed a large chunk of my life/youth.
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For sure, if you are just sitting in your house watching TV the cops aren't going to kick your door in and drag you away just because they need someone to arrest. Most of the people who eventually were found innocent of the crime were originally caught because they had existing criminal records that made them suspects. So one thing for sure that could happen is that it may encourage people to not get yourself involved in petty crime of any sort. If you end up a criminal that could get you in a line-up for a different crime you didn't commit and then you could be wrongly ID'd.