"Capital punishment a costly option," is the title of Julie DelCour's Tulsa World column.
Forget all the arguments about the rightness or wrongness of capital punishment — if it is a powerful deterrent or morally repugnant, if its use is appropriate for worst-of-the-worst crimes.
Should death-penalty laws eventually go by the wayside here and elsewhere, their demise won’t be based on philosophical debates.
The issue will come down to the bottom line. In this era of fiscal peril, legislatures and voters must decide: Do they continue sustaining the nation’s most expensive punishment option — for a relatively small number of convicted murders — when other needs, including education, health care, infrastructure and public safety, go wanting?
Budget cutbacks in Oklahoma since 2008 have resulted in layoffs and the drastic slashing of services and programs.
And:
The death penalty is widely favored in Oklahoma, which has the executions to prove it. For many, keeping it as an option is crucial — whatever the cost. But is that an informed stance?
One need not put aside a philosophical beliefs about capital punishment to recognize the financial impracticality of the system.
Oklahoma leaders should undertake a study to determine the cost of the deathpenalty system here. Relying on those results, Oklahomans could make a more informed choice about whether to keep it. Ultimately, the question comes down to priorities.
The Seattle Times publishes the OpEd, "Death penalty — costly for families of victims too," by Karil S. Klingbeil.
A RECENT Seattle Times story educated us about the soaring financial costs of the death penalty ("Death penalty dilemma: Is soaring cost worth it?" page one, Aug, 15). I would like to address the other soaring cost, the emotional and psychological impact on family, friends and the community, which may be even greater than the financial costs.
Sept. 17 marks the 30th anniversary of my sister Candy Hemmig's murder. She had just celebrated her 33rd birthday at our family home in Olympia the previous Sunday. Candy and her co-worker, Twila Capron were gunned down in an Olympia bank by Mitchell Rupe, a man later dubbed "too fat to be hanged."
Candy left a husband and three children, ages 7, 13 and 16. Twila, too, had a husband and two young children. In an instant, there were two widowers and five children left motherless, not to mention the loss to mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, grandparents and friends. Murder, like death, wracks the entire family including the community.
I have had 30 years to grieve and think through this horrible crime and major insult to our family. My sister Gail and I were enraged yet felt helpless, dependent on the criminal-justice system to deliver justice. Initially we desperately wanted the death penalty, which seemed to be the "worst punishment" that a murderer could receive. My emotion arose out of the terrible pain this man caused my entire family.
After Candy's service, it was all about Mitchell Rupe. It remained so through three trials. I attended all them and listened to the heinous accounts over and over. At the end of each trial, I was left with the same empty feeling. Time passes and begins to heal the wounds and emptiness, but there is no such thing as closure.
And:
The death penalty should be abolished. We should join the many countries that have long ago banned the death penalty. Capital punishment remains a barbaric remnant of uncivilized society. It does constitute a cruel and unusual punishment at odds with our culture and way of life in the United States. We should be putting the money we spend on the death penalty on the front end of crime and apply it toward prevention.
I don't believe calling for someone's death makes any of us a better person. I strongly believe working to end violence makes each of us a better person. Opposing the death penalty makes my philosophy of nonviolence a more powerful belief.
The emotional and financial costs are too great for this country to bear.
Related posts are in the cost and victims' issues indexes.
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