Death of Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania

This is a great article about the death of capital punishment in Pennsylvania: Marc Bookman’s article about captial punishment . However, one final nail in the coffin: the death penalty has not been imposed against the will of a killer in more than 40 years. The only three convicted murderers executed since 1976 all waived their appeals and asked to be executed. So essentially Pennsylvania’s Death Penalty is only carried out upon the request of the person the state seeks to punish. Now balance this, in a cost-benefit exercise, against the nearly $1 billion dollars that the state has spent on capital punishment since 1976. In the current climate of cash-starved budget needs, with a bi-partisan budget bill sitting on Governor Wolf’s desk unsigned today because there is no money to fund it, need we debate the morals of capital punishment? Or can’t we all just agree that regardless of your position on capital punishment, no one can argue with a straight face that it passes a cost-benefit analysis?