Comment: I agree and disagree with your statement.  A dead convict can never commit that crime again.  The guy that rapes and murders is a threat to rape and murder as long as he is alive.   Dead he’s no longer a threat.   That’s not necessarily deterrence to another person committing the crime but it’s absolutely effective at preventing him from ever committing the same crimes.

I disagree with the expense being a good reason to get rid of the death penalty.   It just shifts the most expensive option to the next longest set of appeals.   Appeals will always be exceedingly costly and any defendant that uses their full allotment of appeals for any conviction can run up a staggering bill.   It doesn’t mean we get rid of those penalties too.  It might mean that we take a good solid look at what appeals are available and the timelines for each and look at what is an acceptable number of appeals and avenues for those appeals within the process.