| In an economic sense, it costs much more to execute a prisoner in an aggregate sense than it does to keep him in jail for life without parole. |
Wrong. It costs more to keep them alive through constant appeals, lawyer fees, etc… than to put them in jail for life.
The cost is bore through trying to keep them alive not putting them to death. The actual cost of putting them to death is minuscule compared to the costs bore by a life sentence.
| Indeed, through execution we also lose a valuable resource: cheap labor. |
Wrong…most, not all, but most, hardened violent criminals are not productive members of society…better to give those jobs to the ones who really need them…the poor unemployed, the under-employed, and disenfranchised.
| we could make the penal system self-sufficient (although not profitable, as this brings in a moral issue) in terms of funding. |
Been tried many times and some are still operating ‘ work farms ‘…and even a profitable work farm is a drain on the economy and lacks self-sufficiency because they are mismanaged and depend heavily upon government subsidies.
| Indeed, I would argue that life in prison is a much greater punishment than execution. |
I would argue that the prison system we have used for the last 1500 years or more is archaic and should be abolished altogether. That putting someone in a cage for the rest of their life with others as violent or/and as cruel as themselves is in itself more cruel than putting a bullet in their head.
Of course these criminals don’t want to die…that’s just our survival instincts kicking in…but, as I said, we are all under a death sentence…every one of us…the only real difference is that we’d be determining when and how.
People die before their time all the time, the hospitals are full of people of every age on their death-bed…some people even know how and when they are going to die…I find it infinitely more unfair for an 8 year old to be dying of leukemia than putting a bullet in the head of someone who ‘ chose ‘ of ‘ their own free will ‘ to violate, brutalize, and rape someone.
I have no sympathy for those who ‘ chose ‘ of ‘ their own free will ‘ to brutalize or murder someone, for whatever reason that possessed them…my sympathizes lie with the victims and the potential future victims.
The ONLY argument that has any value against killing them is the argument that the odd innocent may die unjustly.
And with the safe-guards I suggested earlier being in place and enforced the amount of innocents being wrongly convicted of these crimes would be greatly reduced.
Then it becomes ONLY a matter of where one places their judgment…is the life of even one innocent’s rights worth more than the victim’s rights and the rights of those potential future victims.
And THIS is the only real argument.
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