Costs about $20k a year to keep someone in prison, about $5 for the lethal injection compound.
It doesn't kill innocent people, if they were innocent they would be set free through the appeal process.
It is a deterrent, the fear of death is the ultimate deterrent, you end someone else's existence and your own existence will be ended.
It doesn't defy all logic, it's a punishment that should be reserved for people who have committed heinous crimes like murder.
The Death Penalty is actually hideously expensive for the taxpayer. I refer you here:
http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty
And provide a couple of extracts:
"Federal Costs
The average cost of defending a trial in a federal death case is $620,932, about 8 times that of a federal murder case in which the death penalty is not sought. "
"New Study Reveals Costs in Maryland: $186 Million for Five Executions
A new study released by the Urban Institute on March 6, 2008 forecast that the lifetime cost to taxpayers for the capitally-prosecuted cases in Maryland since 1978 will be $186 million.
That translates to $37.2 million for each of the state’s five executions since the state reenacted the death penalty. The study estimates that the average cost to Maryland taxpayers for reaching a single death sentence is $3 million - $1.9 million more than the cost of a non-death penalty case. (This includes investigation, trial, appeals, and incarceration costs.) The study examined 162 capital cases that were prosecuted between 1978 and 1999 and found that those cases will cost $186 million more than what those cases would have cost had the death penalty not existed as a punishment. At every phase of a case, according to the study, capital murder cases cost more than non-capital murder cases. "
"New Jersey
Death Penalty has Cost New Jersey Taxpayers $253 Million
A New Jersey Policy Perspectives report concluded that the state's death penalty has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983,
a figure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state utilized a sentence of life without parole instead of death. The study examined the costs of death penalty cases to prosecutor offices, public defender offices, courts, and correctional facilities. The report's authors said that the cost estimate is "very conservative" because other significant costs uniquely associated with the death penalty were not available. "
No government agency on this earth, and I mean none, is perfect, and always right.
"Carlos DeLuna Texas Conviction: 1983, Executed: 1989
A Chicago Tribune investigation released in 2006 revealed groundbreaking evidence that Texas may have executed an innocent man in 1989. The defendant, Carlos DeLuna, was executed for the fatal stabbing of Texas convenience store clerk Wanda Lopez in 1983. New evidence uncovered by reporters Maurice Possley and Steve Mills casts doubt on DeLuna’s guilt and points towards another man, Carlos Hernandez, who had a record of similar crimes and repeatedly confessed to the murder. A news piece aired on ABC’s "World News Tonight” also covered this story.
The new evidence casted strong doubt on DeLuna’s guilt. This is the fourth investigation in the past two years pointing to the execution of a probably innocent man. Similar questions have been raised in the cases of Cameron Todd Willingham and Ruben Cantu in Texas, and Larry Griffin in Missouri.
See the Chicago Tribune's Investigation, "Did This Man Die...for This Man's Crime?"
Watch ABC's "World News Tonight" (June 24, 2006)
Watch "Did Texas Execute Innocent Men?" - Dan Rather Reports reveals new details surrounding two capital murder cases in Texas - leading to the executions of Ruben Cantu and Carlos De Luna that may have occurred as the result of flawed evidence (September 2007)."
Shall we give him a pat on the back and say sorry? Bit belated I think.
http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executed-possibly-innocent
If we've gotten to the stage where we consider people purely on how much it'll cost to keep them in jail, I really do worry. The person should always come before the system.