e criminal. But, the criminal has a family too. When a person is executed, not one, but two families must grieve. When a person is dead, the punishment is over. Only those left behind are punished. Like the families of terminally ill patients, families of condemned killers experience grief and loss of anticipation of eventual death. They feel as helpless bystanders in a slow dying process they know can be stoppedtheir relatives death is highly desired since homicide is nearly universally condemned-Masour. As the great philosopher H.L. hart once wrote, to take any life is to impose suffering not only on the criminal, but also on many others. That is an evil to be justified only if some good end is achieved thereby that could not be achieved by any other means.Today, executions and the process leading up to them cost more than two million dollars, versus the eight-hundred thousand dollars it costs to house an inmate for life. (Litardo, p.3) Ironically, most people tend to assume that execution would be the less expensive of two routes. This money could be used on rehabilitation programs, outreach programs, and preventive programs. In California, the average death row inmate spends close to a decade on death row. (Litardo p.4) Inmates in normal detention cells actually have a higher death ratio than do those on death row. This is most probably do to the fact that death row inmates are segregated from the majority of the prison community.Perhaps the sad story of Jimmy Wingo, a black man executed in Louisiana can best express the injustices of the death penalty. He was arrested under questionable circumstances and prosecuted by a small district attorney only hoping to secure convictions. Because of his meager financial standings, he received a poor defense. The majority of the witnesses were subpoenaed under the same procedures as the arrest, and some were intimidated before even reaching the stand. His conviction was based...
