Arizona should follow Nebraska and dump death penalty

Last week, the Nebraska Legislature abolished the death penalty, as liberals and conservatives joined forces to override the governor's veto.

Nebraska is the seventh state to repeal the death penalty since 2007 and the first predominately Republican state to do so in more than 40 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a research group that opposes capital punishment.

"This wouldn't have happened without the fiscally responsible Republicans who aren't just beholden to conservative talking points, but are thoughtful about policy," said Democratic Sen. Jeremy Nordquist.

Indeed Nebraska's Legislature, though officially non-partisan, is redder than Arizona's, with 35 Republicans, 13 Democrats and an independent.

Which brings me to Jodi Arias.

That case alone is enough of a reason the Arizona Legislature should follow its conservative Cornhusker colleagues.

Certainly, our leaders won't do it because innocent people wind up on death row, though innocent people do. Consider the case of Ray Krone, released after 20 years on death row when DNA evidence exonerated him. Krone is one of nine condemned inmates in Arizona whose death sentences have been reversed, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Certainly, they won't do it because one out of every 10 people who has been executed in the United States since 1977 is mentally ill, according to the National Association on Mental Illness.

Certainly, they won't consider the decades it takes to carry out the death sentence, which is something less than the crime deterrent our leaders like to call it.

Certainly, they won't do it on moral grounds that a killing state is little better than the murderers we seek to punish.

Certainly, they won't do it because we can't get the right drugs to do the job right. (Surely, we won't go the way of Utah and commence with firing squads?)

So how about doing it in the name of fiscal conservatism?

Our Legislature is constantly cutting taxes then wondering why we can't properly fund things like schools and roads.

Jodi Arias alone likely boosted class sizes in this state. Arias, of course, is the deranged woman who killed her ex-boyfriend by stabbing him, shooting him and slashing his throat.

Taxpayers have thus far spent $3.5 million to provide her with a defense as prosecutors tried, then tried again to put her on death row. That doesn't count the prosecutor's tab in its seven-year quest to dispatch her.

Or the cost of the automatic appeal had she gotten death. Or the inevitable new trial when the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals tossed out that death conviction.

Meanwhile, it would have cost a fraction of that to simply toss Arias' sorry behind into a prison cell for the rest of her life.

Two juries declined to put Arias on death row.

So now we're paying $3.5 million to try to kill her, plus the cost of prosecution, plus the cost of tossing her sorry behind into prison for the rest of her life.

According to the Department of Corrections, we pay $79.40 a day to house maximum-security inmates. Lock Arias up for 30 years and you're still only at $869,430.

Lock her up for 50 years, until she's 85, and the tab rises to $1.5 million.

What could we have done with the millions spent on Arias and the millions upon millions on other capital cases? In Maricopa County alone, 58 capital cases are stacked up, awaiting trial.

Arizona is one of 31 states still killing people, assuming we can figure out a way to do it after the last botch job. Our leaders should make it 30.

Why not save ourselves a few bucks and spend them on schools rather than vengeance?