
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994                   TAG: 9404040180
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BRIEFLY PUT . . .

COST-BENEFIT analysis has been applied to capital punishment with varying results. One recent study put the cost of lethal-injection executions at $46,000, which would seem to favor the firing-squad method, estimated to cost $7,000.

Except that the entire analysis is suspect. For one thing, as Tennessee state Rep. Frank Buck suggested after reading the study, "I believe I can figure out a way to shoot somebody for less than $7,000." For another thing, if saving money were the point, the first step would be to kill the lawyers.

SPEAKING of which, syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd reports that a Los Angeles attorney has won $85,000 in disability payments from an insurance company. The lawyer's claim: For two years he's been allergic to courthouses, so he can't work at his profession.

It seems he contracted this disability because of exposure to the criminal justice system after he was arrested in 1992 - on insurance fraud charges. Now he suffers stress, nausea and mood swings. Our cost-benefit analysis hopes the insurance company gets its money back.

WITH THE STATE income-tax filing deadline approaching, a reminder: You can support several good causes through a voluntary checkoff contribution when you file your 1993 tax return.

For the 1992 tax year, Virginians used this method to contribute $105, 944 to the Open Space Recreation & Conservation Fund; $105, 299 to the Elderly and Disabled Transportation Fund; $94,407 to the state's Housing Program; $86,966 to the Family and Children's Trust Fund; and $62,222 to the U.S. Olympic Committee.

But the most popular checkoff item was the Virginia Wildlife Program. State taxpayers gave it $307,584. That compares with $18,758 in happy returns for the state's Democratic Party and $16,060 for the Republicans. Which suggests the parties might fare better if they changed their names to the Wildlife Program.

by CNB