The recent conviction of Tamir Hamilton in Sparks teenager Holly Quick's death and the ongoing search for the suspect in the abduction of college student Brianna Denison have made local residents believers in the death penalty.

Hamilton was tried and convicted of first-degree murder for the gruesome rape and killing of 16-year-old Quick in her bedroom in September 2006. The Washoe County District Court jury sentenced him to death after six hours of deliberation, finding that the prosecutor provided sufficient evidence to support such a punishment.

Debbie Fletcher, a Reno psychologist who was at the birthday memorial for Brianna Denison on Saturday, said DNA evidence has become necessary evidence to consider capital punishment.

"In cases such as Tamir Hamilton, when there's DNA evidence, in these types of abductions or horrendous crimes, the death penalty is fitting," she said.

However, DNA also has the power to exonerate inmates and serves as the fine line between guilt and innocence.

"A lot of people have been on death row and they were cleared by DNA evidence," Fletcher said.

Others said using the death penalty depends on the nature of the crime.

"If it fits the crime, then yes, the death penalty is better," said Bob Baroni of Sparks, who paid a visit to Denison's gravesite Saturday.

Denison, 19, was abducted from a friend's house near the University of Nevada, Reno on Jan. 20. Her disappearance and murder compelled volunteers and law enforcement agencies to help with organized searches and a fundraising effort to provide money for the processing of nearly 3,000 backlogged DNA samples to see if a match to the offender could be found, but to no avail.

Baroni was one of the search volunteers.

"I'm surprised they haven't found him yet, as huge publicity it's gotten," Baroni said of the suspect in Denison's killing. "Somebody has to know this person. They just need to make the call and get him off the streets.

"I was touched by this whole thing, by what happened to this beautiful girl," Baroni said. "But there are too many (on death row to get through). It's too bad for the taxpayers (to fund life sentences)."

The death penalty has always been under fire for a number of reasons, all of which typically boil down to financial cost to taxpayers, civil rights or moral issues.

Cases involving race are particularly open to attacks from those who oppose capital punishment. An appeals court in Philadelphia on Thursday denied the request of prosecutors to reinstate the death penalty for former Black Panther Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted in 1982 of murdering a police officer, because of flawed instructions in the penalty phase. Abu-Jamal argued in subsequent appeals that the judge, prosecutors and jury — made up of 10 whites and two blacks — harbored racism.

Executions for violent crimes in the United States were halted last year in a de facto moratorium after Sept. 25 when the U.S. Supreme heard Boze v. Rees, a case that challenged the constitutionality of the mixture of chemicals used in lethal injections in Kentucky. According to a 2007 year-end report released by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C., 2007 saw the lowest number of execution in 13 years.

The report also showed that 40 out of 50 states had no executions in 2007, and the South had the majority of executions — 86 percent — in the country. The research also showed that 69 percent of Americans support the death sentence for murder.

The last person executed in Nevada was Daryl Mack, who was put to death by lethal injection on April 26, 2006. On Oct. 15, 2007, the Nevada Supreme Court issued a stay of execution for William Castillo, convicted of beating a retired school teacher to death in Las Vegas.

In Reno and Sparks, more residents who were personally affected by Quick and Denison are increasingly favoring capital punishment. Denison's family, friends and community supporters are hoping for swift justice after her body was found Feb. 15 in south Reno, a victim of strangulation. Police recently disseminated a revised profile on the suspect in the case. Volunteers believe someone in the community knows the suspect.

Meanwhile, friends, families and strangers still mourn Denison, who was called "everyone's daughter" by Washoe County deputies at a February press conference.

Della Baker of Reno stopped by a memorial established by the family at Mountain View Cemetery on Saturday to mourn the loss of the 19-year-old whose disappearance and death caught the eye of the Reno-Sparks area. Although not related to the family, she went to pay respects to Denison.

Wiping away tears from her eyes, Baker said, "I never used to believe in (the death penalty). But look at the hell this guy put her family through. They'll never have another birthday or Christmas with her."

Baker said it's not fair for the attacker to roam free while the victim's family suffers.

"God didn't intend for it to be this way," Baker said with tears in her eyes.

Saturday would have been Denison's 20th birthday and to commemorate it, community members and volunteers paid tribute to the college student at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center with posters, pictures and poems.

But as one chapter is still ongoing for a Reno family, Quick's family and friends in Sparks were able to approach having closure when Hamilton received his sentence, happy to at last find justice through his conviction.

"I went to high school with Holly Quick," said Nick Taylor, who works at the Larry D. Johnson Community Center in Sparks. "It was the first situation where I knew someone personally who got murdered. I have no sympathy whatsoever for the guy who did it."

Taylor, now a UNR student, said he watched the university come together as college students mourned for Denison. He said he has only begun to condone the death penalty after hearing about the stories of both girls.

Taylor, like others, said the fiscal impact of trying a capital case and the cost of holding a convict, whether they serve a death sentence or life without parole, is a factor in determining whether the death penalty is effective in deterring criminals.

"It's the brutality of the crimes," Taylor said. "But some say it costs money to have (prisoners) stay in (prison), and that (death sentencing) might be an easy way (for prisoners to be punished), like peacefully passing."

But, residents noted, in certain situations, there's no other alternative to the death penalty. Some say prisoners who serve life terms without parole are too much of a financial burden on taxpayers and that rehabilitation is ineffective.

"I don't believe (convicts of violent crimes) can be rehabilitated," Fletcher said, calling capital punishment "fitting" in cases where DNA proves a crime was committed beyond reasonable doubt.

Nationally, the cost of a death sentence is substantially higher than in non-capital cases. A study recently released by the Abell Foundation on capital punishment in Maryland showed that death penalties are more time-consuming in the pre-trial period and jury selection and require more attorney preparation. They also have a more expensive penalty phase that is not part of the proceedings in non-capital cases. The research showed on average, a death sentence costs $3 million, or $1.9 million more than a non-death penalty case.

"I don't think our tax dollars should go to (inmates on death row)," said Alex Boortz of Sparks. "They can't be rehabilitated. God will rehabilitate them after (they've been executed)."

Boortz said it frustrates him that it takes so long for execution to take place.

According to the DPIC, the average death row inmate waits between 10 and 20 years for the sentence to be carried out.

Boortz strongly believes in punishment for violent offenses against women and young children. A father of two daughters, he volunteered in the searches for Denison and said there will never be rest for the family even if the suspect is apprehended and convicted.

"The family's in this for the long haul, this isn't short term," he said. "They have to wake up every morning with this. Justice would be (Brianna) still living."

Even 13-year-old Jason Castro, who was spending time with friends at the community center, said the death penalty would be acceptable "if the crime was severe," sharing that he had seen a man on television try to protect his family by killing another man and was sent to prison for it.

As applied to Denison’s killer, Castro said a death sentence would be "perfect."