LETTER: Is the death penalty still viable?
The holding cell, or "last night cell" where the inmate is kept before the execution. Courtesy the Nevada Department of Corrections
Updated November 17, 2025 - 11:29 am
While the Review-Journal continues to report criminal executions in various states, it is noted that the average time between a defendant being sentenced and the execution is 25 years. Sentenced inmates have died while on death row — quite the opposite of how the penalty was administered in centuries past and in certain countries today.
Given this norm in our country regarding death sentences, one must ask: Is it still appropriate? Is a life sentence without possibility of parole now a more suitable sentence for our most violent offenders? Difficult questions that none of the movers and shakers in our legal and legislative systems seem to want to address.
