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.
- Death Penalty Information Center (2025, March 14). NEW VOICES -- Palm Beach Post Editorial: Plea Bargain Underscores the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-palm-beach-post-editorial-plea-bargain-underscores-the-arbitrariness-of-the-death-penalty
- Death Penalty Information Center. “NEW VOICES -- Palm Beach Post Editorial: Plea Bargain Underscores the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty.” Last modified March 14, 2025. Accessed October 2, 2026. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-palm-beach-post-editorial-plea-bargain-underscores-the-arbitrariness-of-the-death-penalty.
- Death Penalty Information Center. “NEW VOICES -- Palm Beach Post Editorial: Plea Bargain Underscores the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center, 14 Mar. 2025, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-palm-beach-post-editorial-plea-bargain-underscores-the-arbitrariness-of-the-death-penalty. Accessed 2 Oct. 2026.