A recent editorial in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reiterated its opposition to the death penalty, even as Missouri prepares to execute the man convicted of killing a former Post-Dispatch reporter. Marcellus Williams is scheduled to be executed on January 28 for the murder of Lisha Gayle (pictured), who left her job as a journalist three years before she was killed. The paper noted Gayle’s likely opposition to the death penalty: “It would be surprising, in light of her other causes and passions, if Lisha herself was a death penalty supporter.” It then catalogued its own reasons for opposing capital punishment: “It is expensive — each case costs about $1 million more to prosecute than a capital case where the death penalty is not sought, according to one study. It serves no deterrent purpose. It can’t help but be imposed arbitrarily and capriciously. Occasionally innocent people are put to death. Occasionally, executions are botched and inmates suffer cruel and unusual pain.”
(“Editorial: The death penalty debate comes close to home,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 19, 2015). See Editorials and Victims.
