The following is a Judge Roy Bean's decision on the issuance of the death penalty in Texas in the 1880's:
Jose Manuel Miguel Gonzales, in a few short weeks it will be spring. The snows of winter will flow away, the ice will vanish, the air will become soft and balmy. The annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass. But you will not be there. The rivulet will run its soaring course to the sea. The timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots. The glorious valleys in this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still you will not be there. From every treetop, some wildwood songster will carol his mating song. Butterflies will sport in the sunshine. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses and all nature will be glad. But you will not be there to enjoy it. Because I command the sheriff of the county to lead you away to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of some sturdy oak and let you hang until dead. And then Jose Manuel Miguel Gonzales, I further command that such officer retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing is left but the bare, bleached bones of a cold-blooded, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, murdering S.O.B.
Jose Manuel Miguel Gonzales, in a few short weeks it will be spring. The snows of winter will flow away, the ice will vanish, the air will become soft and balmy. The annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass. But you will not be there. The rivulet will run its soaring course to the sea. The timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots. The glorious valleys in this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still you will not be there. From every treetop, some wildwood songster will carol his mating song. Butterflies will sport in the sunshine. The gentle breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses and all nature will be glad. But you will not be there to enjoy it. Because I command the sheriff of the county to lead you away to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of some sturdy oak and let you hang until dead. And then Jose Manuel Miguel Gonzales, I further command that such officer retire quickly from your dangling corpse, that vultures may descend from the heavens upon your filthy body until nothing is left but the bare, bleached bones of a cold-blooded, blood-thirsty, throat-cutting, murdering S.O.B.
If it was only that easy. How many times have you heard someone say (or may be you said it), "Let's just put him to death and get it over with, it'll save the taxpayers money." As you can see from the chart to the left (click to enlarge), most Americans favor the death penalty and most Americans feel that it is much more expensive to incarcerate someone for life as opposed to putting them to death.
Take the following case:
Take the following case:
Dennis McGuire was convicted in 1994 for the rape and murder of 22 year old Joy Stewart, who was seven months pregnant. The crime was committed in January of 1989 outside of Cincinnati, Ohio. After raping her, he stabbed her twice. At his trial (5 years after the crime) he was found guilty and sentenced to death; end of story; right, hardly. After his defense team exhausted all appeals, he was finally executed on January 17, 2014. You read that correctly, it took 20 years to finally put him to death and in all that time, he was in maximum security on death row where the cost of incarceration is 2-3 times high of that in the general population. The cost of incarceration for life is approximately $30,000/year in a state prison. The total cost of the Death Penalty; trial, incarceration and appeals is estimated to be anywhere from $3 to 10 million dollars, significantly more than a trial where just life imprisonment is sought. In the case of McGuire, it took 5 years for the trial where he was found guilty and then the appeals to the Ohio Supreme court, Federal District Court and Federal Appeals Court (the US Supreme Court did not grant Certiorari. It would have been much simpler and cost efficient to incarcerate him for life. This now brings up another point is does the death penalty deter murders. The studies on that are extensive and there is no clear proof one way or the other, particularly if the murder's involve passion, psychosis or a sociopath.
Let's now look at a current trial, the Boston Marathon bomber trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. It has nearly been two years since the bombing and his arrest (April 2013), and they are just now getting around to jury selection and the pool is 1300 long. What is disconcerting, is the defense team for Tsarnaez has offered a plea deal in the form of life imprisonment in return for a guilty plea. I have not found any estimates on the cost of the trial, however it will be safe to say that it will be in the millions and the question remains, is society better served by incarcerating Tsarnaev for life or seeking the death penalty.
ADDENDUM
My own personal feelings on the death penalty are mixed. The cop in me want to see murders hung high as an example to others and vindication. However, the less emotional economist says that incarceration for a life is a no brainer.
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