Those who favor capital punishment would describe the intervening years as follows: Taxpayers paid not only to house, clothe and feed a murderer, but they paid the legal bills through more than two dozen appeals and four death warrants that made the victim's family and friends relive the horror over and over. Those who oppose capital punishment, including this newspaper, would agree with much of that. Florida does waste a lot of money on repeated death- penalty appeals. The delay in resolving the case does prolong a tragedy.