Now that local prosecutors in Colorado have rejected the offer by alleged Aurora mass shooter James Holmes to plead guilty in exchange for avoiding the death penalty, we can once again ask whether it's worth it to incur the extra cost involved with capital punishment, compared to life imprisonment.
While abolitionists cheered the news that Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber had declared a moratorium on executions last week, the public reacted with surprise. Oregon has the death penalty?
If Gary Haugen dies at the hands of the state, then his blood will be upon all Oregon citizens. We are the "people who have spoken." I, for one, do not want to be guilty of taking a life. He has no right to make me a killer.
The question we should be asking is how this global economic crisis will change us -- all of us, in the way we think, decide things, and even do business.