Silver linings

[strangedave]

At least with suicide bombing you don't get people arguing that we should bring back the death penalty as a deterrent.
I'm not just being flippant here, either. There actually does seem to have been a reduction in calls to restore the death penalty, not that it obviously has no power to deterr 'public enemy number one'.

Comments

[grouchiegrrl]

that is fantastic. you have just cheered me up no end!

[catbiscuit]

Fair point!

[biofrog]

On that topic, Good News Week last night had a small segment where it was mentioned the death penalty was actually being reduced because it cost more than keeping someone in prison for life.

Disregarding any moral aspect, I was sure it has always been the other way around even with the lawyer costs, appeals, court fees and so on. Colour me surprised.

[ataxi]

That's been known and studied in detail for ages, e.g. http://www.econ.ilstu.edu/uauje/PDF%27s/issue1996/Death_Penalty.pdf

(US data but the guiding principles would probably be similar here)