[mractbqm] Death penalty social cost

We consider the cost of accidental misapplication of the death penalty (someone incorrectly executed): this is, of course, the most emotional issue.

We further cast our attention not on the obvious cost of destroying an innocent person's life, but the more subtle and indirect costs of the actions a person, fearing the death penalty, might take to avoid accidental execution.  A concrete example might be to avoid helping, avoid even going near, an injured person to avoid the chance of becoming involved and being incorrectly convicted and executed should they die.

What are other such actions or inactions?  What is the social cost of such actions?  How can we measure it?  I suspect this indirect cost is greater than the direct social cost of all the (very rare) incorrect executions. Unfortunately, this cost is directly proportional to the degree that the death penalty, or any punishment, is a deterrent to crime.