The readers: death penalty, stadium

Re: today's paper: Am I correct that it costs $24 million dollars for a single execution or did I misread the article in today's paper about lethal injections?  If this is the exact cost, can you give me a site where I can see a break-down of this price tag?  I just can't imagine why it would cost this much for one execution or for even a dozen. -- Cbytheway

I saw that figure too and I do not know how they came up with it. That would be a good topic for a column. I always thought it was the wrong focus, anyway. If the death penalty is justice, then we ought to have it regardless of the cost; if we decided not to have it, it ought not to be because we would save money. Just my thinkin'.

Last week Steven Bousquet reported from Tallahassee the State is paying St Petersburg 2 million a year in a sports subsidy, monies which end up paying for Tropicana Field expenses.  These payments have a limited life span. Has the sun setting of these payments been considered relative to the  proposed new stadium financing arrangement? -- Phil V.

My understanding is that the state portion for the Trop, which I think is $2-million a year, basically continues until it's paid off regardless. The plan for the new stadium I described this morning does NOT pay off the state's share of the existing debt, but neither does the state contribute anything to the new stadium -- the old state payment just continues until it's finished...