RichardDeaf
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Teen Receives 196-Year Prison Sentence
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probably not within our lifetime, but again I am just being ridiculous..
. I do like the idea of this prison though.
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200 year wow it is not possible!
jillio
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Not to mention the fact that when penaly is out of proportion to the degree of the offense, justice has not been served. This is comparable to grounding an 8 year old child until he reaches the age of 21 simply because he came in late from playing outside on two occasions. That is excessive, and does not serve to carry out the purpose of having consequences. Negative consequences are meant to teach, and to guide behavior in a positive direction.
jillio
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He could be, but we don't know that for sure. I doubt that he has been assessed for mental health issues. And not are sociopathic personalities are totally resistent to rehab. The plain fact of the matter is, we do not know who will respond to rehabilitation until we attempt to provide that which will rehabilitate them. And a 19 year old young adult. certainly has a better chance of rehabilitation due tot he fact that behaviors are not as solidified as the behavior patterns in, say a 50 year old. A 19 year old is still in the process of completing several developmental tasks psychosocially and cognitively that put them in a posistion of responding well to corrective measures.
If he is an individual that cannot be rehabilitated due to a severity of a mental disorder, then 200 years in prison is decidely the wrong place for him. He needs to be in a facility that will address his mental health concerns, as he is not responsible for having been the victim of a mental illness. While he cannot be permitted to prey on others as a result of being mentally ill, nor can we punish him for being ill.
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jillio
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Thanks, Pacman! You beat me to it. Not to mention which "saving money" is a poor excuse to execute a person!
RichardDeaf
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Typically aroung $25,000 a year per prisoner. If that teenage serve out for rest of his natural life, say maybe another 50 years, it would cost taxpayer about $1.25M (not accounting the future inflated costs).
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let me guess - the criminal's black in a white-dominated community with fairly decent crime rates and the judge/cop/DA (also white) want to push for maximum penalty allowed for each of violation. THAT'S INJUSTICE! somebody calls Al Sharpton!
i see now.. death pently is cost more than sending them to a prison..
therefore they prefer they go to prison.. ..
it is something wrong with these kind of cost.. i dont agree that kind of cost..
i thought death pently should cost less.. and teach everyone to stop doing wrong..
you know i mean.. i dont know why they made that kind of cost.. rme!
therefore they prefer they go to prison.. ..
it is something wrong with these kind of cost.. i dont agree that kind of cost..
i thought death pently should cost less.. and teach everyone to stop doing wrong..
you know i mean.. i dont know why they made that kind of cost.. rme!
RichardDeaf
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Biggest expense on death row are LAWYERS doing many many appears cases to get that person off the death row.. Lawyers and court's time is NOT cheap.
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I don't believe any ONE thing from that link. It is very subjective and misleading. After all..... the site is anti-death penalty. I don't think I'm willing to do extensive research on numbers in detail unless I get paid to do it
HOWEVER - it is true that death penalty costs more than life imprisonment but why I say the data from that site is a horseshit because they're probably using a different kind of estimation which they tend to use upper limit of error to make their case looks shocking.
Statistic from that site - Year 2006:
1. 3,350 total number of death row inmates in USA
2. 660 death row inmates in California
3. California taxpayers pay at least $117 million each year post-trial seeking execution of the people currently on death row
4. More than 3500 men and woman have received this sentence in California since 1978 and NOT ONE has been released, except those few individuals who were able to prove their innocence.
(data from Bureau of Justice)
1. 2006 - there are 3,228 inmates in USA awaiting for execution
2. 669 death row inmates in CA
3. 13 have been executed since 1976 in CA
4. 3 has been freed from death row
5. CA's 2006 State Budget: $131 Billion
now you see why I don't believe any one single bit from the site? It will shock you, scare you, mislead you into believing death penalty is wrong and incredibly expensive! It is difficult and time-consuming for me to research deeply in how the cost is spent and how the lost cost is recovered so I don't think it raises a serious concern on how much money taxpayers pay for it because I'm sure CA recovered some of it back through other means although... the cost it spent on death row inmates surely looks minuscule from $131 billion, don't ya think?!
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Myths about the death penalty
Combat Law, Volume 2, Issue 2 -
Myth No. 1: Death Penalty results in reduced rates of homicides, murders and serious crimes in a society.
This is the most common myth which works in favour of imposition of death penalty. Typically, people believe that if there were possibility to be sentenced to death, the prospective offenders would think twice before committing a crime and could even totally give up their criminal intentions. This is what is believed to be the "deterrent effect" of the death penalty and many people believe that deterrent effect of death penalty is a very effective way to prevent murders and similar criminal behavior.
However, in reality, innumerable studies from all over the world have revealed totally different results. In fact, many studies even show the opposite effect, that existence of the death penalty as a punishment is brutalizing society and making it more violent. It is of course impossible to prove with absolute certainty for example how many murders have been prevented or how many people more have been killed because of the death penalty, and further, there are several factors according to criminologist researches, which can affect to criminal activity and criminal behavior and deterrent effect of punishment is only one of these factors. There are, however, several studies showing that there hasn't been any remarkable change, for example, in murder rates, after abolishing death penalty and also several studies go on to prove that threat of death penalty does not have preventive affect for people committing serious offences. What is remarkable is that some studies have even shown results that effect of the death penalty is just the opposite: existence of the death penalty is correlated with increased homicides!
After looking at the available statistics and selecting some very similar countries where factors relevant to causing or preventing criminality are quite similar, and then selecting from amongst those the countries with and without the death penalty, it is possible to make some careful conclusion as to how effective death penalty is in preventing serious offences. For example the western (post) industrial countries (USA, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Monaco and Liechtenstein) have all abolished the death penalty, except USA, and still, for example, murder rates are much higher in USA than in any of these other, similar, countries.
Of course it is possible to make statements that if the death penalty would not exist even more murders would happen in USA, but it is difficult to find support for this statement from the studies. There has been no remarkable increase in murder rates in those US states which have abolished death penalty. In fact, the survey released in September 2000 by New York Times found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with death penalty has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without death penalty. Also, the FBI data show that 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average (source: Amnesty USA).
Also, for example, in Canada, after the abolition of the death penalty in 1976, Canada's homicide rate has declined. In 2000, there were 542 homicides in Canada - 16 fewer than in 1998, and 159 fewer than in 1975 (one year prior to the abolition of capital punishment). ( Source: Correctional Service Canada. derived from Logan R. Crime Statistics in Canada, 2000, Juristat, Vol. 21 No. 8, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2001, p. 6; and Tremblay, S. Crime Statistics in Canada, 1998, Juristat, Vol. 19 No. 9, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1999, p. 6.)
Some people also believe that the reason USA has such high crime rates is because of the reason that it is easier to get guns or firearms in the USA than in other western countries. That may, of course, be part of the reason, but it still doesn't explain everything: First of all, it is not a big problem to get a gun in Europe either, and secondly guns do not shoot the people themselves: you need a person to get a gun and to fire it.. Then, one may ask, what are the reasons that the deterrent effect is not working? This is mostly because people are not thinking about the consequences and punishment when they are committing serious crimes. Most of the homicides are committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol or in a state of mind, which lowers person's discretion and capability to think clearly, like rage, anger, fear or panic.
Some of the homicides are also committed by children or mentally ill persons who do not understand perfectly what they are doing. There are other types of serious offences, for example murder or homicide, which are done deliberately after carefully planning by clear thinking offender. However, even in these cases the deterrent effect does not work very effectively as either these offenders do not believe that they could get caught or they don't care about the sentence they will get if they get caught. Infact, sometimes if a person knows that the death penalty is waiting for him, nothing will hold him anymore and he could go on to commit more homicides!
Myth No. 2: Innocent people are not convicted in death penalty trials.
It is also often believed that proceedings in the death penalty trials are so meticulously carried out that there is not an iota of scope for error and in practice it is impossible to send an innocent man to death. However, there is no such a thing as 'foolproof' trial as long as human beings are working in the courtrooms, investigating the questions of guilty, testifying, calculating the evidences, or even passing judgments! There is always a possibility of making mistakes and those mistakes have happened several times even during the last few years! Convictions of the people because of wrong or faulty grounds are not fiction. For example, according to some studies, only in the USA, around 100 people been released from a death row because they have afterwards found innocent. It is also common that after getting more proofs, accused are found to be not guilty for the same crime for which they were convicted and it is possible that murder changes to manslaughter, and that one could invite death penalty while other does not. If an innocent person has been sentenced to prison, it is, at least in theory, possible to compensate the wrong judgment passed on that person by releasing him and compensating his lost with money. However, once a person is sentenced to death, then it is final, there is no chance to compensate him even theoretically!
Myth No. 3: It is cheaper to sentence a person to death than keep him a lifetime in prison.
First of all, it is impossible to fix any price on a human life. This by itself is sufficient to explode the third myth! But, even at the other, practical level, it is established that the actual cost of one death penalty case is usually much higher than the cost incurred on an individual serving life imprisonment. This is because of higher pre-trial costs and costs incurred during the court process. In the death penalty cases, states need to guarantee all the possible requirements of the fair trial, much more investigation, much more time, more defence lawyers to protect accused, more prosecutor and more bureaucracy. This means, both, higher investigative costs and higher extra costs during the trial. Also, many times death penalty is ultimately changed to life imprisonment and this means also extra costs after the more costly trial.
Of course, all this depends on the death penalty system of the country. If, in a country it is possible to award death penalty after "normal" trial, i.e., without extra investigations or other extra protections for the accused, the costs of investigations and trial go down, but a system which does not take care of the necessary requirements for the fair trial and procedural fairness especially in death penalty cases, is a system that has failed badly. Also, in any case, in such circumstances, the possibility of faulty sentences is bound to rise, which goes against the myth no. 2.
Myth No. 4: In death penalty cases, the probability of being sentenced to die is the same for everyone.
In theory, equality before the law is guaranteed in constitutions and in international conventions all over the world, which is great if it would work well. However, several studies have found that in death penalty cases, the likelihood to be convicted is much higher for the poor, less educated, ethnic minorities and religious minorities, as compared to the privileged individuals who have been accused of similar offences. Some studies have found that from 80 to 90 percent of the death row inmates are from minority groups and as many as 95 percent are classified as poor. Also, death penalty may be used for political reasons as well. Infact, there are so many possibilities of this kind that only when it is abolished from the law can a person be sure that the death penalty will not be used against him for the wrong reasons!
Myths about the death penalty, from Volume 2, Issue 2, of Combat Law
Combat Law, Volume 2, Issue 2 -
Myth No. 1: Death Penalty results in reduced rates of homicides, murders and serious crimes in a society.
This is the most common myth which works in favour of imposition of death penalty. Typically, people believe that if there were possibility to be sentenced to death, the prospective offenders would think twice before committing a crime and could even totally give up their criminal intentions. This is what is believed to be the "deterrent effect" of the death penalty and many people believe that deterrent effect of death penalty is a very effective way to prevent murders and similar criminal behavior.
However, in reality, innumerable studies from all over the world have revealed totally different results. In fact, many studies even show the opposite effect, that existence of the death penalty as a punishment is brutalizing society and making it more violent. It is of course impossible to prove with absolute certainty for example how many murders have been prevented or how many people more have been killed because of the death penalty, and further, there are several factors according to criminologist researches, which can affect to criminal activity and criminal behavior and deterrent effect of punishment is only one of these factors. There are, however, several studies showing that there hasn't been any remarkable change, for example, in murder rates, after abolishing death penalty and also several studies go on to prove that threat of death penalty does not have preventive affect for people committing serious offences. What is remarkable is that some studies have even shown results that effect of the death penalty is just the opposite: existence of the death penalty is correlated with increased homicides!
After looking at the available statistics and selecting some very similar countries where factors relevant to causing or preventing criminality are quite similar, and then selecting from amongst those the countries with and without the death penalty, it is possible to make some careful conclusion as to how effective death penalty is in preventing serious offences. For example the western (post) industrial countries (USA, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Monaco and Liechtenstein) have all abolished the death penalty, except USA, and still, for example, murder rates are much higher in USA than in any of these other, similar, countries.
Of course it is possible to make statements that if the death penalty would not exist even more murders would happen in USA, but it is difficult to find support for this statement from the studies. There has been no remarkable increase in murder rates in those US states which have abolished death penalty. In fact, the survey released in September 2000 by New York Times found that during the last 20 years, the homicide rate in states with death penalty has been 48 percent to 101 percent higher than in states without death penalty. Also, the FBI data show that 10 of the 12 states without capital punishment have homicide rates below the national average (source: Amnesty USA).
Also, for example, in Canada, after the abolition of the death penalty in 1976, Canada's homicide rate has declined. In 2000, there were 542 homicides in Canada - 16 fewer than in 1998, and 159 fewer than in 1975 (one year prior to the abolition of capital punishment). ( Source: Correctional Service Canada. derived from Logan R. Crime Statistics in Canada, 2000, Juristat, Vol. 21 No. 8, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 2001, p. 6; and Tremblay, S. Crime Statistics in Canada, 1998, Juristat, Vol. 19 No. 9, Ottawa: Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1999, p. 6.)
Some people also believe that the reason USA has such high crime rates is because of the reason that it is easier to get guns or firearms in the USA than in other western countries. That may, of course, be part of the reason, but it still doesn't explain everything: First of all, it is not a big problem to get a gun in Europe either, and secondly guns do not shoot the people themselves: you need a person to get a gun and to fire it.. Then, one may ask, what are the reasons that the deterrent effect is not working? This is mostly because people are not thinking about the consequences and punishment when they are committing serious crimes. Most of the homicides are committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol or in a state of mind, which lowers person's discretion and capability to think clearly, like rage, anger, fear or panic.
Some of the homicides are also committed by children or mentally ill persons who do not understand perfectly what they are doing. There are other types of serious offences, for example murder or homicide, which are done deliberately after carefully planning by clear thinking offender. However, even in these cases the deterrent effect does not work very effectively as either these offenders do not believe that they could get caught or they don't care about the sentence they will get if they get caught. Infact, sometimes if a person knows that the death penalty is waiting for him, nothing will hold him anymore and he could go on to commit more homicides!
Myth No. 2: Innocent people are not convicted in death penalty trials.
It is also often believed that proceedings in the death penalty trials are so meticulously carried out that there is not an iota of scope for error and in practice it is impossible to send an innocent man to death. However, there is no such a thing as 'foolproof' trial as long as human beings are working in the courtrooms, investigating the questions of guilty, testifying, calculating the evidences, or even passing judgments! There is always a possibility of making mistakes and those mistakes have happened several times even during the last few years! Convictions of the people because of wrong or faulty grounds are not fiction. For example, according to some studies, only in the USA, around 100 people been released from a death row because they have afterwards found innocent. It is also common that after getting more proofs, accused are found to be not guilty for the same crime for which they were convicted and it is possible that murder changes to manslaughter, and that one could invite death penalty while other does not. If an innocent person has been sentenced to prison, it is, at least in theory, possible to compensate the wrong judgment passed on that person by releasing him and compensating his lost with money. However, once a person is sentenced to death, then it is final, there is no chance to compensate him even theoretically!
Myth No. 3: It is cheaper to sentence a person to death than keep him a lifetime in prison.
First of all, it is impossible to fix any price on a human life. This by itself is sufficient to explode the third myth! But, even at the other, practical level, it is established that the actual cost of one death penalty case is usually much higher than the cost incurred on an individual serving life imprisonment. This is because of higher pre-trial costs and costs incurred during the court process. In the death penalty cases, states need to guarantee all the possible requirements of the fair trial, much more investigation, much more time, more defence lawyers to protect accused, more prosecutor and more bureaucracy. This means, both, higher investigative costs and higher extra costs during the trial. Also, many times death penalty is ultimately changed to life imprisonment and this means also extra costs after the more costly trial.
Of course, all this depends on the death penalty system of the country. If, in a country it is possible to award death penalty after "normal" trial, i.e., without extra investigations or other extra protections for the accused, the costs of investigations and trial go down, but a system which does not take care of the necessary requirements for the fair trial and procedural fairness especially in death penalty cases, is a system that has failed badly. Also, in any case, in such circumstances, the possibility of faulty sentences is bound to rise, which goes against the myth no. 2.
Myth No. 4: In death penalty cases, the probability of being sentenced to die is the same for everyone.
In theory, equality before the law is guaranteed in constitutions and in international conventions all over the world, which is great if it would work well. However, several studies have found that in death penalty cases, the likelihood to be convicted is much higher for the poor, less educated, ethnic minorities and religious minorities, as compared to the privileged individuals who have been accused of similar offences. Some studies have found that from 80 to 90 percent of the death row inmates are from minority groups and as many as 95 percent are classified as poor. Also, death penalty may be used for political reasons as well. Infact, there are so many possibilities of this kind that only when it is abolished from the law can a person be sure that the death penalty will not be used against him for the wrong reasons!
Myths about the death penalty, from Volume 2, Issue 2, of Combat Law
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I don't believe any ONE thing from that link. It is very subjective and misleading. After all..... the site is anti-death penalty. I don't think I'm willing to do extensive research on numbers in detail unless I get paid to do it
HOWEVER - it is true that death penalty costs more than life imprisonment but why I say the data from that site is a horseshit because they're probably using a different kind of estimation which they tend to use upper limit of error to make their case looks shocking.
Statistic from that site - Year 2006:
1. 3,350 total number of death row inmates in USA
2. 660 death row inmates in California
3. California taxpayers pay at least $117 million each year post-trial seeking execution of the people currently on death row
4. More than 3500 men and woman have received this sentence in California since 1978 and NOT ONE has been released, except those few individuals who were able to prove their innocence.
(data from Bureau of Justice)
1. 2006 - there are 3,228 inmates in USA awaiting for execution
2. 669 death row inmates in CA
3. 13 have been executed since 1976 in CA
4. 3 has been freed from death row
5. CA's 2006 State Budget: $131 Billion
now you see why I don't believe any one single bit from the site? It will shock you, scare you, mislead you into believing death penalty is wrong and incredibly expensive! It is difficult and time-consuming for me to research deeply in how the cost is spent and how the lost cost is recovered so I don't think it raises a serious concern on how much money taxpayers pay for it because I'm sure CA recovered some of it back through other means although... the cost it spent on death row inmates surely looks minuscule from $131 billion, don't ya think?!
then google up more, you will find more info about death penalty cost more than life in prison.
btw, I don't support death penalty.
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You want 19 years old guy to sentence in death penalty since he's not murder or rape to others, also sentence to death penalty for theft and burglary are very ridiculous.