This significant legislature brings to light the idea of laboratories of democracy. While some people believe morals, and whether one man can ever have the “right” to kill another man, are the only issues being discussed in the larger debate over capital punishment, the debate includes many other factors, including the (extremely large) cost of capital punishment.
It is predicted that over the next two fiscal years, Connecticut will save approximately $850,000 per year, and then $5 million in subsequent years, as a result of abolishing the death penalty. Many other states have calculated similar economic advantages to the removal of capital punishment. For example, it is estimated that the death penalty costs Florida around $51 million a year more than what it would cost to punish first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. These statistics can be found here along with many more relevant statistics about the death penalty. The high costs of capital punishment come from providing death-row inmates with separate housing from other inmates and the many costly appeals that potential death row inmates almost always request, and that are funded by states.
Financially strapped states are looking at the fiscal benefits other states have reaped from repealing the death penalty and realizing that they, too, could be using the money previously allotted to capital punishment, and using it to fund other programs that would benefit citizens more.
Additionally, Malloy’s abolishment of capital punishment illustrates the trusteeship vision of democracy, and perhaps why more people should support this particular vision: According to a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University, 62% of Connecticut citizens support the death penalty, 30% oppose it, and 54% said it was a bad idea to replace the death penalty with a sentence of life without parole in Connecticut. Malloy, who was voted in by these same citizens, made the decision regarded capital punishment based on what he believed to be the most appropriate action at the time, rather than what the citizens seemed to support at the time.
Roy Occhiogrosso, a senior adviser to Malloy, defended the governor’s actions in a statement saying, “Polls come and go, numbers go up and down. The governor always does what he thinks is best for the state and the right thing to do.” (Link quote)
Capital punishment is a weighty and complex issues that raises a bevy of emotions in nearly all who discuss it, making people seem rather indecisive. For example, despite 62% of people claiming to support the death penalty, when Quinnipiac asked, “Which punishment do you prefer for people convicted of murder, the death penalty, or life in prison with no chance of parole?” only slightly more than 40% favored the death penalty. Furthermore, 74% say a life or death sentence depends on the circumstances of the case.
Perhaps it is best to have one person who we support, whose job is to weigh every aspect of an issue, from the moral to the financial, make an informed decision for us. Us being a large group of rather wishy-washy citizens.
Rate this posting:
{[['
']]}
']]}