Death Penalty Study

The Death Penalty Information Center apparently released a report showing that it is quite expensive to actually put criminals to death; much more so than keeping them in the slam for the remainder of their lives. The costs presented by the organization's report are staggering and any sane person would question the reports' accuracy. However there can be no doubt that it is quite expensive to continue to rehear each case on appeal. Of course, most death penalty verdicts are automatically appealed, often ad nauseum. This is perhaps necessary to make darn sure that no innocent person is ever put to death. The whole business is a double edged sword. Do we as a society suffer those among us to live that have been convicted of heinous crimes, or do we automatically sentence such criminals to life without parole? There is undeniably the cost of housing, feeding and otherwise caring for them. Of course the numbers bandied about by the DPIC purport that it is far more costly to follow the process of actually putting someone to death. They are possibly correct to some extent but in the case of extremely violent criminals I say "smoke em if you got em."