Like I say, I didn't say that it was infallible. Just a lot less likely.
And sometimes there's just no other option.
"Sorry policeman, that wasn't my secret sex dungeon under my house that has my daughter and inbred offspring caged inside it, I don't know how that got there...I've been framed!'
Therein lies the problem with the death penalty. It's not infallible.
And as to the second point, there is an option. Lock them up and throw away the key.
The money spent on keeping people locked up is not as much as you think it is. It pales into comparison to the kind of cash that's being thrown about at the banks.
It costs £41,000 a year to incarcerate an adult prisoner. (Govt. figures)
"On 31 March 2008, there were 10,911 prisoners serving an indeterminate sentence (life imprisonment or Imprisonment for Public Protection) in prisons in England and Wales. This total is made up of approximately 4,170 offenders sentenced to an indeterminate sentence of Imprisonment (or Detention) for Public Protection (IPP/DPP)." HMP website.
@ £41000 per year that's c. £451,000,000. That's a lot of dough.
Although the lower figure of 4170 is the kind of prisoner we have mostly been talking about.That's c. £170,970,000 per year spent on lifers. Now not all of those would be eligible for your death penalty. Let's say 10%
£17,097,000 a year.
Obviously my figure of 10% is a guess but all the other ones are based on govt. figures.
Is £17,097,000 a year worth throwing away one of the basic tenets of our society. Not one bit.
Guys, you have to separate your natural gut reaction to seeing people punished for heinous crimes and look at the bigger picture and how this would effect our society in the future.
