Deadboy Wrote: Only applies to death penalties using modern methods and meeting 'ethical' standards. That's how they inflate the numbers up over a million bucks. Also, they try to take into account post-trial prosecutors, lawyers, cost of execution time, lethal chemical compounds, etc. Hire a private hitman for five grand and watch how fast that price drops (assuming the actual trial and prosecution cost are the same as if capital punishment was legal or illegal.)
But then it becomes less than legal. You raise very valid points, and a pretty good counterargument. The only thing that comes into question from our two points of view is the person(s) issuing the execution.