If the sentence was carried out in a timely fashion the tax payers wouldn't have to foot the bill for the creatures/predators of society. When there are living witnesses i.e. HiFi Killers there should be no appeals just plain death. If the sentences were carried out speedily then maybe the killer would think twice about his actions. Sorry I do believe in an eye for an eye with some crimes

Thing is if someone knew they would be dead within a month or less I'm sure murder would go down. Also none of this last meal and words victims didn't get that option. Don't tel them when they will be sent to hell.

Government should not have the power to kill its citizens. I'd rather see death row inmates in indentured servitude to the victims.

What is wrong in showing people that killing other people is wrong by killing people who kill other people?
Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

Until the system stops putting innocent people in prison the death penalty should be eliminated.
What about the death row inmates that have been found innocent by DNA lately.
Out of our fear the system has been changed to guilty until you can prove yourself innocent.
The conviction rate on criminal cases is above 98%.
One of the main reasons that so many people charged choose to plea bargain(even if they are innocent) is that juries almost always convict.

Perhaps you death penalty opponents would like to be the ones footing the bill for lifetime incarceration in a single cell, or indentured servitude, or whatever else? Or maybe we should put the new jails in your neighborhood?

In a day when people can commit sexual assault and spend one night in jail because the prisons are overcrowded, it's disingenious to say we should lock people up for life.

If you don't want the death penalty, don't murder someone. It's not like death row inmates didn't have a choice in the matter.

System:
Do you know what the precentage of wrong convictions is for Death Row Inmates? I would like to know just "How many" are wrongfully incarcesrated.

In Utah, I can not think of a single person put to death was not guilty of the crime they paid for.

Stop worrying about the "Perp", some of their victims have life times sentences because of the crime that happened to them.

Of all the objections to the death penalty, the objection that an innocent man might be put to death strikes me as the weakest.

Of all the ways government can accidentally kill you, a mistaken execution doesn't even register on the scale. The police can mistake your cell phone for a gun in the dark and shoot you, or be sent to the wrong address on a drug raid by a confused informant and shoot you when you move too fast after being startled awake by men bursting in with guns. A postman can run over your child in the street. A VA hospital can give you a fatal infection. A jury can send you to prison for something you didn't do, where your case won't receive a fraction of the attention a death-penalty case gets and you stand an excellent chance of being raped and contracting a fatal case of AIDS or being murdered by another inmate.

All these things happen routinely. In comparison, in all their striving, death-penalty opponents have yet to identify a single case where a demonstrably innocent man was put to death.

The death penalty should be swift and sure in capital cases. Criminal cases have high conviction rates because prosecutors have too limited resources to deal with cases where there is little evidence to indicate guilt. They haven't enough people to try every case brought to them, so they pick and choose.

Unfortunately there are innocent people who end up on death row. One is one too many, but more people are killed by escaped killers that die wrongfully accused. If those on death row were put out of our misery swiftly, the number of deaths in the US would decrease. I know some of Ronnie Lee Gardner's victims would still be alive if he had been executed for his first murders in a timely manner.

If they get rid of the death penalty I'm going to start lobbying to just let deathrow inmates go. I dont want to reward them with room and board. They couldnt be any worse than the guy who will be in jail for 25 years or less for microwaving his infant child. Doesnt look like people are very afraid of jailtime anyway.

@confused
Over 20 since 1970. I am sure that those 20 men are very happy that the process takes a long time to exact punishment. I think if you are going to accept death as a punishment than you need to do all you can to be SURE that the convicted isn't innocent. The innocence project has exonerated over 200 people since 1992, 77% of which were convicted based on eyewitness testimony.

Anonyomus 10:23
So you are saying that 20 people over a 38 year period was proven wrong? Now tell me how many people were put on death row over the same time period?

So statistically speaking, it is less than 1/100th percent of the people convicted are innocent. You can not even get that good odds driving on the freeway.

Now in Utah (which the letter writer is talking about), I do not think there is one person on death row that is not guilty of the crime they were convicted of.

In the news now is a guy who microwaved his two month old daughter who will have to live with her deformaties for the rest of her life.

His mother asked that instead of prison he be given treatment.

I agree, and IV filled with drugs that will send him to the next world.

Seems to me that if there is irrefutable proof, as can be had in this day and age, with DNA and forensic science, a murderer should be quickly and quietly dispatched to meet his maker and victim/victims, with the least cost and expense to society. For those sitting on death roll, there should be no amenities that their victims are not privileged to enjoy. Time to bring back the dungeons, that should lessen the appeals. Don't hand me "gruel and unusual punishment', it might also help if every murderer was dispatched in the same way as his victim/victims.

Hey, I'm all for the death sentence, just as long as Utah doesn't get rid of the slow, torturous death of a regular prison sentence.

There should be no "Death Row"...at least not one with a population. Just take em out and shoot em, no fanfare, funeral, just a big pit...they deserve no more than that.