Too expensive: Kenneth Lee Boyd has bought the farm with a lethal injection in Raleigh, N.C., for the murders of his estranged wife and father-in-law — in front of his children. He was the thousandth person killed by the gubmint since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Boyd told reporters he didn’t want to be remembered as a statistic, but that’s what he has become.
What’s wrong with the death penalty is not that it unfairly is applied to the income and racially challenged of America, nor that it is inhumane and cruel and unusual, it’s that it costs too much.
The typical capital punishment case, once it has run its course through the various appeals processes and courts, costs over a million dollars. The average cost of housing a convict is $50,000 per year. In other words, we could house a convicted murderer for 20 years for what it costs to put him on death row. Which means that since Boyd was convicted 17 years ago, besides the million-plus we spent on defending the decision to kill him, we also spent about $850,000 to keep him alive until we could kill him. That’s what’s wrong with the death penalty. Oh, and it’s also cruel and doesn’t deter crime.
I think the problem with the death penalty isn’t just the cost issue, it’s also, “What’s the point?” We all know deterrance is out the window — the death penalty has no effect whatsoever on committing the act of murder, especially for crimes of passion like Boyd’s. But the larger question for our correction system in general is, “Is it revenge or is it redemption?” Archbishop Tutu says no one is beyond God’s touch, and therefore beyond redemption. I agree.