Unless you’ve been living under a sizable rock without internet access or major news stations, you know that the Supreme Court ruled yesterday that it’s unconstitutional to give minors the death penalty. Prefacing with the fact that I haven’t read the opinion and, as such, my opinion means squat… here it is…
Frankly, I think if they’re charged as an adult, they ought to receive the same punishments. That said, I think we ought to just scrap the death penalty.
Yes, you heard it.
Not that I don’t believe in killing people, I definitely do, it’s just that it costs too much. When it costs more to kill someone than to put them away for the rest of their life, well, I’m sorry but that’s a bad idea. As long as these folks who would’ve gotten the death penalty are NEVER released back into society under any circumstances, I have no problem with not killing them.
At the same time, I think that if we give someone a 25 year sentence, they ought to sit in prison for… wait for it… 25 years. No “time off for good behavior” no “parole” nothing like that. If they wanted to behave, they should’ve done that instead of committing whatever crime the committed. To the same extent, though, we probably need to re-evaluate which crimes are prison worthy. An adult selling pot to another adult? Stupid, but who cares? We let adults sell tobacco to other adults. And alcohol.
That’s another post for another day, though.
Don’t forget about the other big case about the Ten Commandments!! Man, I love it when The Court is in session. Gives me goosebumps.
It costs more to keep than cook ‘em? I don’t care - I saw cook ‘em anyway.
(Can you tell I’ve assimiliated into Texas quite nicely?)
I’m no lawyer… but I never understand when people say it’s more expensive to make one stay for life as opposed to killing them. Sure I understand the extra costs of death row, appeal process, more appeals, etc… But prisons are expensive and overcrowded. It would seem to me that housing and feeding and giving health care to a prisioner for 40-60 years would be more expensive than 15 years of same stuff plus going through the appeal process. Of course that’s just the accountant in me…
But I wonder if the reason that it is so expensive to kill them is because the process gets drug out so long…
Lawyers are expensive, man.