As an opponent to capital punishment, this article about the possibility of repealing or abolishing the death penalty, or even a temporary moratorium, lifts my heart.
I know this is a topic that splits the Democratic Party, as well as this site, pretty much in two. I cannot say I understand the feelings of those who have lost loved ones to violent crime, nor do I want to diminish their feelings, but the United States will be the last of the last of the major Western nations to abolish what I consider to be an inhumane practice.
According to the article, the main reason many states are rethinking their position on capital punishment is due to financial and budgetary issues. The article goes on to discuss other reasons death penalty critics want to abandon the practice, but marginalizes those reasons as a minority view.
Part of me is saddened that Capital punishment may soon be history not for the moral and ethical issues, but because we couldn't afford it, but most of me is very excited at the thought of a wave of states leaving capital punishment behind as we enter this new period in American history.
As for the price of a capital case for the state?
A 2008 study by the Urban Institute, an economic and social policy research group based in Maryland, found that an average capital murder trial in the state resulting in a death sentence costs about $3 million, or $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty is not sought.
What do you think?