you should go back a couple pages
the death penalty in the usa is more expensive than life in prison
only people who cant afford decent lawyers get the death penalty and there is a great degree of confirmed racism in the sentencing
im not sure "mercy" is a justifiable defense for killing people
EDIT
and also there is a not-insignificant number of people who have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to have been innocent of the crime for which they were sentenced to death
I did a reasonable amount of research on this, as you did bring to my attention some interesting points I had missed. In terms of expense, it is truly interesting how little information is freely available. Opponents of the death sentence love to tout how costly it is, but how costly is maintenance of a regular inmate? Hard to find, that. However, if you'd be so kind as to look
here
, we'll find some unfortunately old data. Nonetheless, it does help to make a point. For certain offenders whom are under a certain age, the death penalty is cheaper. It does vary depending upon the location of their offense, as we see a large degree of variance in the cost of maintaining prisoners across the nation, but I'll do some math for us. (Assuming the death penalty costs an average of 3 million). An offender in 2009's price structure in California is cheaper to execute if they will live no less than 64 years from the date of incarceration (42.5 years on the low end of 2 million). Hmm, they'd have to be pretty young. In Colorado's supermax prison, it is cheaper if they will live no more than 50 years (33 1/3 years on the low end of 2 million). Still pretty young, as I don't imagine life expectancy is in the eighties. Guantanamo isn't a fair base for this point, but a prisoner needs only live for 3 1/3 years before execution is cheaper.
But of course, that's the average cost. The high end outliers are elderly prisoners.
"The National Institute of Corrections said the annual cost of incarcerating prisoners age 55 and older with chronic and terminal illnesses is an average of two to three times the expense for all other inmates, particularly younger ones. More recently, other researchers have found that the cost differential may be wider."
This cuts the number of years post needing healthcare down significantly.
So, while in some cases, given an inmate has perfect health and doesn't live too long, it is cheaper to imprison them for life. The simple truth is that there are too many variables to nail down whether or not an individual will be more cost effective one way or another.
But, I stand by that it is more humane. Have you seen anything on the push for the legality of doctor assisted suicide? It's mainly for those with terminal illness, but mercy sure does seem like a good justification for them. So why not inmates?
On the topic of racism affecting sentencing, we already know about all of that. However, it's interesting to me that the black man may be sentenced to death, which I assert is more humane, and a white man may get LWOP, which is surely the long and torturous route.
I understand my opinion is unpopular, just tossing in my two cents. I am not one to do so without certainty in the validity of those pennies, though, my friend.
