California spends too much for prisoners on death row

It is time for California to abolish the death penalty. Since 1967, 40 years, we have executed 13 people. Twenty-six have died from natural causes and two committed suicide. We have spent about $250 million dollars for each person executed. The last man executed in California was so old and infirm that he had to be helped to the gurney. Families of victims wait 20 to 30 years with the promise they will feel better. It didn't bring back their loved one. State executions just create another family of victims because family members of the condemned feel branded. State killing cost three or four times the cost of life without parole. The length of time to executions is likely to get longer and the cost of executions will get higher. We will be keeping a large group of men alive with terribly expensive medical care just so 50 people can go to San Quentin to see a man strapped down on a gurney for about 10 minutes until a doctor pronounces him dead. The death penalty does not offer deterrence, it does not help victims, it harms families of the executed, it takes money needed for education, it brutalizes society, it puts us in the company of the death-belt states of the south and the most brutal and repressive countries in the world. We need to abolish it.Paul W. ComiskeyNewcastle