While applauding a life-sentence plea bargain arranged by Palm Beach County’s State Attorney in an especially heinous murder, the Palm Beach Post said the state had “forfeit[ed] the moral standing to execute anyone else.”

The State Attorney said that he agreed to let the defendant plead guilty to killing 5 people because the life-without-parole sentnece will bring finality. The Post noted: “The state saves not only the cost of a trial; the victims’ relatives - who supported the deal - do not have to relive the horror. The state will save more by avoiding years of appeals; all credible research shows that incarceration is far cheaper than litigation. Most important, [the defendant] never again will threaten the public.”
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“But,” the paper further stated, “[i]t is impossible to craft a law that reserves capital punishment for only a certain class of criminal. Because Florida and the 37 other states where the death penalty is legal won’t accept that fact, governments waste untold millions each year on post-conviction appeals over whether the facts of the case support the ultimate punishment.”
(Palm Beach Post Editorial, December 16, 2004). See Editorials and New Voices. See also Victims, and Costs.

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