Norway Killer gets 21-Years

[eppie]

spending in the millions to keep him incarcerated

I keep seeing arguments like this - how costly it is to keep these psychos in prison for the rest of their lives versus how cheap it is to just kill them.

I have a few issues with that line of thought, but the main one is this - is it really cheaper to administer the death penalty than it would be to house them in prison forever? It's not like they build special prisons for these guys with specially trained and equipped guards, Magneto-style. Find a dark cell in the basement of an active prison and remember to feed him (or her, must not discriminate) some gruel once or twice a day. The main costs the taxpayers pick up when dealing with these monsters is more due to the legal system. The millions spent on them is actually prosecuting them, which is going to happen regardless of whether the death penalty is applied or not. After that, things get relatively cheap no matter how you decide the fate.

And if I can add to that. These things like the Breivik case don't happen a lot in Norway, so spending some crazy amount of money once isn't as bad as changing the whole ethical basis of your country.
Also, the money spend, is mainly manpower I guess so it is not like it is thrown away.

The fact that Breivik deserves the death penalty is a whole other discussion than the one of having the possibility of giving the death penalty in a country.