The trial of Richard Poplawski started today...the POS lowlife scum who murdered three cops and wounded another in Pittsburgh in April 2009. Lots of talk on the radio today about how the DA is going for the death penalty instead of plea-bargaining for life in prison without parole, and how that is going to waste over a million bucks (the estimated cost of this first trial, assuming there will be at least one more on appeal).
Poplawski is guilty as sin - no question about that. PA doesn't execute anyway, so basically he will be in prison for life with no parole. The big difference is that apparently, because of the costs of the appeals trials and maybe special prison housing (I tried to find out if they keep the condemned folks in solitary, but the DOC website doesn't say), it costs even more to keep a death-penalty inmate than a regular one.
I wonder why the high costs in either case? And why we don't execute the felons that we KNOW are guilty? There is no way that reasonable doubt exists in this particular case. I say, one appeal, completed within two years of the original verdict, and if the original verdict stands, have a speedy resolution and carry out the execution. PA does lethal injections - or would, if they carried out any.
In Poplawski's case, I would volunteer to shoot the SOB. For free. He doesn't even deserve that quick mercy.
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