1,000 deaths and counting

Last Thursday was the 50th anniversary of the day Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus.

Other notable events in the history books from last week include the first human heart transplant in 1967 and Galileo's perfection of the telescope in 1621.

This week, Americans can bring out the cake and party hats and also celebrate the 1000th execution since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

That isn't a milestone made for future page-a-day calendars.

It's a reason to pause and ask why we continue to execute criminals in America.

More than 3,400 men and women are on death row in America and 118 of them foreign nationals. On average, one is executed every 10 days.

Most prisoners spend at least 10 years waiting to die. Their lawyers exhaust the appeals process, or petition the governor of their state for clemency.

Convicted murderers and rapists shouldn't be freed from their cells, but instead of "eye for eye, tooth for tooth," we should employ the alternative.

A majority of Americans -- 64 percent according to an October Gallup poll -- support the death penalty. But the raw numbers don't represent the larger trend. That 64 percent is down from the all-time high of 80 percent in 1994.

Why the drop in support? Many Americans believe life in prison without parole is a more viable option.

When given the choice between the death penalty and life in prison, a May 2004 Gallup poll found only 50% supported the death penalty.

So maybe Americans are not as vengeful as previously thought.

Because morality issues divide us, let me speak in a language all Americans can understand -- money.

Capital cases cost our country hundreds of millions of dollars per year. According to a March L.A. Times article, California taxpayers spend more than $250 million per execution. Every year, executions cost $114 million more than what it would cost if death-row prisoners were locked up for life.

Texas, which has accounted for 355 executions since 1976, would benefit the most by sentencing felons to life in prison. A Dallas Morning News study estimated that executing prisoners in that state cost three times more than maximum-security room and board for life.

Poll after poll has found similar results -- the death penalty is bleeding us dry. So do these studies actually impact the states?

The Dallas Morning News study was completed in 1992. Texas has already executed 19 people this year, three times as many as the closest state.

I guess that would be a no.

As long as the death penalty is legal, states will use it. To be completely cruel and heartless, state administrators could save big bucks if they simply locked up these men and women and threw away the key.

But not to overlook the human element, life sentences are reversible -- and the government doesn't always get it right.

Sometimes the innocent are convicted. In fact, 122 prisoners have been freed from death row since 1973, many because of DNA evidence.

But make no mistake, that's not stopping us from executing.

Kenneth Lee Boyd was the 1000th to die ? North Carolina was the lucky state to receive this distinction.

Boyd admitted to murdering his ex-wife and her father and said he hoped for another chance.

"I'd hate to be remembered as that," he said two days before his death. "I don't like the idea of being picked as a number."

The numbers don't stop there and nor do the executions. Every 10 days we send one man or woman to the gas chamber or inject them with a lethal cocktail.

Boyd and all the others killed are just a statistic, just four numbers on a page.

Unless we stop killing, those four numbers will become five, then six, and maybe even seven one day -- meaning we will have many more grim anniversaries to come.