Or we could just stop. Killing people doesn't deter crime.
Perhaps it would be prudent to stop wasting money on the death penalty and look at what actually causes crime.
I'm with you. If we are to grow as a species, we need to strive for a higher standard of ethics.
Hell, if people don't want to go for the ethical approach, then there is still the economic angle. The death penalty is expensive. So, all these fiscal conservative types should support the abolition of the death penalty too.
Nah, they'd just claim that the process is flawed and needs to be overhauled since obviously it should be cheaper to kill someone now than it should to incarcerate them for 30+ years.
Well, it is somewhat odd. I wouldn't be surprised if it was in fact possible to overhaul the system and make the death penalty cheaper, without making it worse than it is on the whole "false conviction" front.
I'm not saying we should. But it might be doable.
The cost is, by my understanding, that of all the appeals. Cutting costs on death penalty cases would probably mean cutting the number of opportunities the convict has to appeal the verdict.
Unfortunately, to do that, you'd have to change the legal system overall, because juries are an imperfect people who can be swayed by pretty arguments and the race of the accused and the victim.
After all, we had an innocent black man executed even as new evidence came to light about his innocence, and yet people were convinced that just because he was convicted by a jury, that he was somehow actually guilty.
As long as prejudice exists in the USA, a jury will always be imperfect, and innocent people will always be convicted.
And prejudice will always exist.