I figure that life in prison (a real prison) would be worse than death. But I condoned the death penalty thinking that it was cheaper than giving them room and board.
Wrong. The death penalty is much more expensive to the tax-payers once you figure in the cost of lawyers.
There should be a time limit on appeals. A year. If you can't provide sufficient proof that the perp isn't guilty in a year, it's over.
#9. Screw the costs of trial and execution. The key point is, as I once write in a column for the Baltimore News American, “An executed murderer never murders again”.
Not citizens, police, jail staff, medical staff or fellow convicts.