oner would be paid approximately $60,000. The chemist in a gas chamber would be paid more than any other executioner (Kaplan 29). For one inmate to live in a state prison for one year, the cost is $20,000. It would cost $800,000 for an inmate to live on death row for 40 years (29). If an inmate lived on death row for 100 years, which is unlikely, the incarceration would cost the same amount of money as one execution. So is an execution a waste of money? Maybe it is. Punishments are meant to correct one's behavior. If a little boy does something bad, his parents might send him to his room as his punishment. This punishment teaches the boy not to be bad. If the life of a convict is taken, is it really punishing him? There are two answers to this question. Yes, because the criminal is suffering a punishment that is probably quicker and less painful than the suffering of his victim. No, because nobody will benefit from the death of another person. An option to the death penalty is life without parole. This option has proven to be an ineffective method because some felons are eventually paroled and set free after a "change of heart." Many times these paroled felons have killed another victim after they have been set free (Gross 9). Maybe capital punishment is the only solution for the problem of murder. It does prove one fact: If you can't do the time, then don't do the crime....
