Common Sense Gets the Death Penalty

Setting aside the morally intolerable possibility of the State executing an innocent citizen, here is yet another reason to object to the death penalty: it costs way too freakin' much.

Taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then, according to a comprehensive analysis of the death penalty's costs.

Choke on that, California.

America's most important contribution to the history of moral philosophy is pragmatism. I suspect I'm not alone in yearning for its return to American political life.