Shunning: A Death Penalty Alternative

I'm a death penalty proponent. I believe if a person can be conclusively, without a shadow of a doubt convicted of killing another premeditatively, while sane, that person has given up the right to continue living. Take 'em out back and shoot 'em in the back of the head. Then charge the victim for the cost of the bullet.

That said, I think the US court system is so fatally flawed, such a judgement is impossible. A jury of peers has been reduced to twelve people proven to know nothing about anything relating to the case. And the peers are chosen from the geographic area of the victim, not the accused. The level of incompetence that's been shown by law enforcement, prosecutors, defence attorneys judges and the penal system make getting a fair trial a hit or miss affair. And when a death penalty is an outcome, there's no room for error.

One of the cants of the pro-death lobby points up that keeping a murderer alive costs more than killing them. Well, recent analysis by several states busts that myth. Between all the extra lawyering, and the pressure it puts on the judicial system, it's simply not true. And that, more than all the eye-for-an-eye versus eternal bleeding hearts, may finally put a stake into a barbaric practice that offers torture for years on end for prisoners and victims' families alike.

Okay, now what? Just give 'em life and let 'em have run of a prison until they die of old age? Put them in the general population? Give them television, library privileges, mail and conjugal visits, cakes from home and love letters from mentally deranged folks from the outside? The ability to contact and continue to torture the families of the victims?

Nope. We should do the next best thing to death. Put them in a cell and throw away the key. One to a cell. No outgoing or incoming mail. Limited television and book (think kindle behind glass) access. No telephone calls or personal visits. They're dead to the world. Shunned by society. Alone. For the rest of their lives.

There will be challenges to this: cruel and unusual punishment, etc. Dead people don't get any television, or conjugal visits. The alternative is for this person to go through the death process grind and then die. Conviction and a punishment of shunning would need to effectively render that person dead to rights, as it were. 

Don't know if it's possible, but economically... sounds great!