Reform Of Capital Punishment Through Appeals Process
...in the form of Capital Punishment reform through the appeals process. It has become increasingly evident that there are for too many loopholes and stall tactics combined with a grave lack of accountability all contributing to a blatantly weak legal system. This is costing taxpayers an average of 30,929 dollars annually per inmate housed, and with more than 42,000 inmates being held between our 32 prisons alone, the financial burden lies heavily on the shoulders of taxpayers. The consistency in this weak system has given more than enough just cause to criminals who break the law to no longer fear repercussion. It infuriates me that in a system that allows you to plea bargain, buy or remorse your way out of placement in or out of facilities better maintained and equipped than the schools we send our children to, society as a whole is still hesitant to capitalize on our rights as citizens and punish these criminals appropriately.
Under current state law, cases where the death penalty has been decreed the Supreme Court will automatically review the case and may choose to either affirm conviction and death sentence, affirm conviction but reverse death sentence resulting in a retrial of the penalty phase or they may choose to reverse the entire conviction which would then cause a retrial of the entire case. Those convictions that are upheld by the Supreme Court send these criminals to be held where the inmate then spends an average of nearly 10 years appealing their case, some as long as 20. Since the average age of a condemned inmate is around 40, if successful in their appeals the inmate will be around 55-60 years old. If unsuccessful, the inmate still would have cost taxpayers an average of 463,935 dollars in their condemned time alone, an astronomical sum of money to reaffirm twice something already proven by the courts and confirmed by the people. Ironically...
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