A good example of what is wrong with the death penalty.

[kane]

The guy that shot up the theater in Colorado during the Batman movie made an offer last week to plead guilty to all charges in exchange for life in prison without parole. Today the prosecutors declined the offer and are going to seek the death penalty.

I don't for a second disagree with the idea that this guy deserves to die for what he did, but now the case is going to drag on for months in court and not only is the community going to get to relive every gruesome detail, they are going to spend a ton of money on his defense and all his appeals after he is found guilty.

And there is still no guarantee that he will end up with the death penalty because he will likely work some kind of insanity plea into this so if he is found to be mentally ill the jury may choose to not give him death. And during all of this the guy gets more publicity which is likely what he wants.

The best possible scenario here is that he is sentenced to death, his appeals are denied and in 10-15 years he is actually put to death and all of this will do nothing to deter someone else from doing the same thing.

They should just take his offer, put him in jail and let him fade away and disappear from the public conscious.

[CourtneyR]

It coast us more money to kill people in prison then it does to give them life.

[_Richard_]

a bunch of lawyers are going to make a bunch of money off the backs of a bunch of dead americans

what's new?

where is the reason to change?

Big media circus, everyone talks about how sad it is,

holds breath for next 'terrible tragedy' to start all over

[kane]

Originally Posted by CourtneyR_FFN

It coast us more money to kill people in prison then it does to give them life.

Yep. In high profile cases like this one it could cost millions of dollars to get through the trial, through all the appeals and actually put him to death.

There was a case in Georgia a handful of years ago where a guy had been convicted of a crime that was going to send him away for a long time. He was taken to the courthouse for sentencing, escaped, shot and killed the judge and some guards, carjacked someone and got away. He committed several crimes before kidnapping a woman and hiding at her house. She talked him into turning himself in.

All prosecutors and public defenders recused themselves because they knew the judge in question. The cities actual DA prosecuted the case and they brought in a defense lawyer who had worked in death penalties cases from New York. The indictment was over 900 pages. There were 1,000's of pieces of evidence, multiple crime scenes and many witnesses.

The defense attorney talked to the client and he agreed to plead guilty to any and all charges in exchange for life in prison without parole. When the defense attorney took that to the DA he was turned down. The DA told him if he didn't seek the death penalty he would never get reelected. So the case went on. The public defender's office kept running out of money to fund the defense team so it kept getting put on hold. Finally, 2 1/2 years later the trial is over and the guys is found guilty on many charges. During the sentencing phase he makes an insanity plea, is found not of right mind and given life with parole instead of death. Millions of dollars and nearly 3 years spent simply for one guy's political career.