But what if those 1000 free murderers go out and each kill several more innocent victims?
In Texas, the poster child for the death penalty is Kenneth Allen McDuff.
McDuff was first sentenced to death in 1968 for murdering two teen-age boys and raping and strangling a 16-year-old girl. In 1972, the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. His sentence was commuted to life in prison and he was released on parole 17 years later.
Making up for lost time, he started murdering again. In the early 90s, he was convicted of abducting and murdering two more women, but several other victims have been identified. Authorities believe he may have murdered as many as a dozen other people. He was finally executed in 1998, saving countless other victims.
I could accept life in prison as an alternative to the death penalty if it really meant life in prison. Too often, after 20 years or so, victims' families are gone and the public forgets. Then some parole board feels sorry for an old coot who has spent most of his life in prison and decides to turn him loose.
Making up for lost time, he started murdering again. In the early 90s, he was convicted of abducting and murdering two more women, but several other victims have been identified. Authorities believe he may have murdered as many as a dozen other people. He was finally executed in 1998, saving countless other victims.
This is something the death penalty opponents try not to focus on. Executing a convicted killer introduces a (hopefully small) probability that you execute an innocent. But failure to execute a vicious killer creates the probability that he will kill again. It's a trade off