The Wrong Solution

Diane Harper says after many years of uncertainty, she now opposes the death penalty on economic grounds. The example she provides is Randy Steven Kraft.

Kraft was apprehended in California in 1983 with a dead Marine in his car and a coded list that indicated he had killed at least 66 other men. Remains of many of those have been found. He was convicted in at least some of those murders and sentenced to death.

He still sits on death row, appealing his convictions. Harper says it cost the taxpayers over $2 million for his original trial. All his appeals over the years have compounded that amount. Her solution is to abolish the death penalty and sentence him to life without the possibility of parole, thereby saving the taxpayer the money expended on appeals. According to her theory, then, we should never have tried him in the first place, because it cost too much.

I have a better solution. There is no doubt the man is guilty -- rarely is the murderer caught with the body in his car and with a document listing his other victims. Let's limit appeals to evidence which logically contradicts the verdict. Get rid of all the nit-picking technicality appeals. Carry through the execution swiftly. Dead men cost the taxpayers nothing.

"Crime cases persuaded me." The Dallas Morning News; December 15, 2010; p. 20A.