VM, I must respectfully disagree with you. A person who is unquestionably guilty of premeditated or non-self-defensive murder, should be executed because that is justice for the person he murdered. Not revenge, but justice. A life for a life. Since another’s life clearly has no value to the killer, his life should be deemed of equal value. And that IS a deterrent, because at least THIS murderer will never be able to commit such a crime again. Small steps.
The reason it takes more money to execute than to incarcerate for life, is that the courts are so reluctant to enforce the death penalty once it is deemed appropriate, tht a prisoner is allowed numerous appeals. The prisoner lingers in jail for sometimes decades, all on our tax dime. If they would do what the Sanhedrin was supposed to do, i.e. once the Sanhedrin unanimously agreed on the death penalty after sleeping on the decision overnight, the person was immediately taken out to be executed, it would mitigate that waste of money issue.
I see no purpose to allowing ANY murderer (where there is no even one mitigating factor to consider) to live. I don’t care how young this Boston bomber is. He killed people who will never live to see their old age, and he killed a child who will never even reach HIS age. And what about the people who have been horribly and irrevocably maimed for life? We have to grow up and stop coddling people who would show such callous disregard for their own humanity. I wouldn’t lose sleep over it. In my more liberal-thinking years, I might have argued your point, but I have seen too much suffering, and too many monstrous people getting out of jail instead of being put six feet under.
BTW, his age is of no consequence to me. When he packed a bomb with nails and shrapnel or whatever was in it, he knew exactly what he was doing. He learned from the best of the worst examples of human beings, how to maximize the damage. If he were an 8 year old, I might feel differently, but then again, that 8 year old would probably be blown up with everyone else. BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT THEY DO. There is no reason to allow such a person to continue to breathe the same air that we do.