athlone child rapist

[The Iceman]

I heard that in America its actually more expensive to have someone on death row and executed than it is to just lock them up for life. Lawyers, appeals, high security, press involvement, doctors, paperwork - all adds up. Costs more he says - I don't know.

[Asal Mor]

I heard that in America its actually more expensive to have someone on death row and executed than it is to just lock them up for life. Lawyers, appeals, high security, press involvement, doctors, paperwork - all adds up. Costs more he says - I don't know.

I'd believe it with the American system. Some countries, like China, are much more efficient and the average time spent on death row there is only a couple of weeks. The longest prison sentence someone can serve is 15 years, so the death penalty is widely used. If you were to take a theoretical world where all convictions were safe and miscarriages of justice could be avoided, I think this would actually be a more humane, less hypocritical system, than locking a person up in a box for life and patting yourself on the back for being opposed to the death penalty. Unless you're going to give someone a real second chance at life, put them out of their misery.

[nrico2006]

Why in the UK and Ireland are people given life sentences when they don't mean life?  Why not give him 20 years?  As someone else also asked, what is the logic in concurrent life sentences when they don't mean anything different than one life sentence?

[ludermor]

There is the mechanism in the UK legal system for full  life sentances but it doesnt seem to be used too often.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_prisoners_with_whole-life_tariffs