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I think life without parole is a better sentence, because it generally "sticks" in the appeals courts-as opposed to "death sentences" that are ( in many jurisdictions ) only rarely carried out.

By the same token, however, having the death sentence "on the table" makes it possible to obtain those "life w/o parole" decisions.

I think life without parole is a better sentence, because it generally "sticks" in the appeals courts-as opposed to "death sentences" that are ( in many jurisdictions ) only rarely carried out.

Wisconsin doesn't have the death penalty. The guy who murdered my neighbor's kindergartener will be eligible for parole (this was prior to Wisconsin having the "life without parole" sentencing option) when he's 106 1/2. He got a lawyer for one shot at the appeals court & the state supremes. He lost, of course, and the state doesn't fund any federal appeals. I think of him every once in a while, but I never have to see his face. I don't have to hear about his wretched childhood ever again, or how he was on acid & coke when he killed her--at least not from his lawyers trying to make him into a sympathetic character. He's just sitting there & rotting until he dies--or lives until he's 106 1/2, his earliest release date. Would I feel any better if he was on death row or if he were executed? Not really. There's nothing that will ever bring that child back. Nothing will make that family whole again.

There's no such thing as life without parole. Most of the death penalty convictions overturned in the US have either been on technicalities and/or the death of witnesses after so many years. That same process that frees the guilty from death row is also used to free them from life without parole.

Execution is the only true final justice.