Posted on 10/15/2010 10:31:04 AM PDT by Graybeard58
NEW HAVEN — It will take $1.3 million more to put Steven Hayes on death row than to keep him in prison for the rest of his life, according to Hayes' lawyers. But a judge ruled Thursday that the cost will not be a factor in deciding whether Hayes is sentenced to death.
Judge Jon C. Blue granted a motion by the prosecution to block financial testimony from being presented at a trial to determine whether Hayes will be given a death sentence for his role in a home invasion and triple homicide in Cheshire.
Hayes was convicted of 16 charges in the 2007 triple homicide and home invasion. Six of those charges could result in a death penalty. Among other crimes, Hayes was convicted of killing Jennifer Hawke-Petit and her daughters Hayley, 17 and Michaela, 11.
A second man, Joshua Komisarjevsky, is also charged in the same crimes and is expected to be tried next year.
Hanging would be ultra cheap.
They say that the DP is no deterrent, yet look at how they grasp at any straw to escape the noose!
Not if THEY work pro-bono on the appeals...
;-)
This is exactly why I oppose the death penalty. Cheaper to let them rot in prison.
Reusable, too. I bet you could use the organs.
Definitely something in the water up there in Connecticut. The EPA needs to check it out.
Those trial layers are always trying to save the tax payers money!
It is not better if he does not rot in jail but gets out on appeal. They a guy like this will do anything he wants because he won't be put to death.
I guess I don’t understand all the factors involved. Seems to me that sticking needle in a convict’s arm and pumping some drug concoction (y) into them after 10 years of paying their room and board (X) equals ($X * 10)+ y. While the life sentence is $X * 40 ... or more. Is the y really that expensive?
When they say it’s cheaper to have a life sentence rather than have the death penalty, they are adding in all of the court costs and legal fees for the multiple legal appeals which death row inmates get. So it goes far beyond the prison costs of keeping the inmates in prison.
Stupid ruling by the judge. (And much stupider for the prosecution to ask for that ruling.) If the defendant was allowed to argue this, the jury wouldn’t buy it for a second. Now, it is almost guaranteed that an appellate court will reverse and send the case back for another trial.
I believe this is the only time a liberal ever considers cost. BTW, the reason for the higher cost is due to liberal demands for endless judicial reviews of sentence.
“This is exactly why I oppose the death penalty. Cheaper to let them rot in prison.”
The only problem is that down the road some idiot or idiots could parole them. They also remain a danger to prison guards and other inmates or really anybody they come in contact with.
I say cut their motors ASAP.
Bullets are cheap.
Way I understand it is that death penalties generate appeals. Every appeal must be answered and costs the state money. Every time. Over and over again. For decades. (Not to mention the opportunity for an dirtbag to become cause celebre and Sean Penn’s new best friend forever, or until...)
And a trial where the death penalty is on the table costs more to prosecute than a life-without-parole (no appeals) trial.
If this is not true and, on the whole, the eventual syringe is cheaper than languishing, forgotten and anonymous in cramped squalor (life-without-parole) then I change my mind.
I guess I’m just a callous, unfeeling person by today’s standards.
I think that the condemned should be brought back to the county where he was convicted, and at high noon on a Saturday, he’s marched to the top of a gallows and he takes the drop. They leave his remains swinging in the breeze for at least three hours to (1) ensure he’s dead, and (2) as a reminder to others of his ilk as to what awaits them.
As far as I’m concerned, make it a carnival atmosphere with family’s bring their kinds and having a picnic before the big drop. If we’d stop coddling criminals maybe the crime rate would drop. Also for those you argue that the DP does not deter crime, after the big drop, I’ll wager that that person will never commit another crime again.
I don’t know about the carnival atmosphere, but I’m all for bringing back hanging.
Oh well, maybe the 0bamacare death panels will ultimately do what we won't do legally.
Rope is cheaper.
Yes, they used to be so wasteful with taking out the heart and intestines and throwing them on a fire.
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