Death penalty is immoral, expensive

Letter to the Editor
Tallahassee Democrat, 8/22/2019


On Thursday, Florida will send the 98th, barbaric message since 1979, justifying state-sponsored murder to punish and deter murderers.

Death Row inmate Gary Ray Bowles is scheduled to be executed for the 1994 murder of a Jacksonville man who was hit in the head with a concrete block and strangled. To be sure, a heinous act. But aside from the immorality of state-sanctioned death, consider the fact that our state would save $51 million a year with life in prison without parole as an alternative to the legal costs associated with capital punishment.

Is our hateful revenge worth the cost in the loss of our humanity and the price tag to taxpayers?

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Peter Butzin, Tallahassee, pbutzin@ gmail.com