Originally Posted by wibblyesq

I'm not disagreeing that a person like this would be better off dead, but executing someone costs much much more than incarcerating them. Appeals, lawyers, court time, etc cost a lot of money.

Money wise it's not a solid argument, and with the amount of misconvictions (even in this case some poor teen got blamed first) means that people who didn't commit the crime could end up being executed. Stick in a jail, throw away the key, if it ends up being an error, you can still let them free, if you execute the wrong person, well...