On Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:26:34 -0700, wrote:

You can also check out
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/numb...nd-region-1976
and see that as of March this year, a total of 1156 prisoners have been
executed, across the country, since 1976. About 35 executions per year
on average (there were 37 last year). According to DOJ, we have about
3300 death row inmates. That's about 94 years worth at the current
rate, so while there may be other confounding variables that would
affect that 94 year timeframe, it's clear that a death sentence is a
*very lengthy* prison stay, possibly ending in execution, but likely
actually being equivalent to life without parole.

The death penalty may well be much more expensive than LWOP, or it may
be somewhat cheaper, but clearly not by a large margin.

I have the impression that it usually takes about ten years to run
through all the lawyering and kill someone. I understand that in the
UK, when they had the death penalty, in the average murder case, it
took six weeks from the crime to the hanging. Basically if you were
caught killing someone, you would swing in weeks, rather than years.
It took almost exactly three years for Saddam, from capture to death.
[Ain't Google wonderful. of course I couldn't remember]

Casady