Granted, he’s the nemesis of Batman and so can’t be just bumped off, but is it really realistic that SOMEONE wouldn’t have put a bullet in his head by now? There’s literally no point in keeping him alive; he’s killed hundreds of people with no remorse. Why is he alive? I know Batman has said he will not kill, but this would seem to be a point where that would work against his effectiveness as a protector of the weak.
Batman’s neurotic hatred of guns derives from watching the death of his parents. One source describes him as “dedicating his life to ending the evil that permits one man to take the life of another”.
In addition, no one is responsible for the evil that somebody else chooses to do. Free will works both ways!
The Joker has been killed many, many times. He remains alive because the writers keep bringing him back.
He has a good HMO.
Remember the golden rule in comics:
No one stays dead except for Bucky.
The only occassions I can recall the Joker’s death is in The Dark Night Returns, when he breaks his own neck to fram Batman (but that’s in the future, so it doesn’t really count), and “Death in the Family,” when he takes a shot to the chest from an assault riffle, and then the helicoptor he’s in crashes and explodes. But like many comic book characters, a new writer comes along who’s always wanted to do a Joker storyline, and we’ve got another risen villain. You just can’t kill him.
He also died in the “Batman as a Vampire” Elseworlds graphic novel. (So I forget the name, sue me. :p)
IIRC, he seems to pretty much always place himself in situations where he either has the upper hand (as when he deals with other homicidal maniacs) and/or won’t get busted by anyone other than Batman who, as previously mentioned, won’t kill him.
…and Barry Allen.
I think the real question is, Why is there no capital punishment in the comic world, or at least the mainstream comic world. Obviously the answer is as above, the writers want the villains. But I am not an obsessive comics reader so I don’t know whether the lack of a death penalty has ever been brought up and rejected in a Batman or other comic. Does anybody know?
The Joker never dies because he’s Batman’s arch-enemy, and every hero needs an arch-enemy. The rules just won’t allow arch-enemies to die. Unless of course, like Holmes & Moriarty, they perish together in a climactic struggle. (And even then they usually come back.)
However . . . the REAL question, the REAL mystery (if you’ll forgive a partial hijack here) is how does the Joker keep finding people to work for him? Think about it – this guy is a total frickin’ LOONY who kills people at the drop of a hat, often for no reason, and commits his crimes more for shock value than profit. Not to mention he’s been known to shoot his own men whenever he feels cranky. Who in their right mind would work for such an unpredictable, murderous monster when there are plenty of other, more respectable criminal masterminds to ally oneself with? And yet, he seems to have an endless supply of cronies who are willing to put up not only with his madness, but also with Batman kicking the crap out of them on a regular basis.
That’s no way to make a living.
Just saw Exapno’s post . . .
I’d guess that super villains never get the death penalty for the same reason the Joker doesn’t: they would be found legally insane. If you were a lawyer, how difficult could it be to persuade a jury that a guy who wears an outlandish costume and calls himself by a bizarre code name is a little on the loopy side? 
Oh, feel free to hijack away. It just surprises me that no one in the comic has ever asked this question, or set out to off the bugger. And Bosda, (this may be hijacking my own thread), but allowing someone to commit an evil act is being indirectly responsible for their act. Isn’t it?
…and Uncle Ben
…and Gwen Stacy unless she’s a ::shudder:: clone.
Technically, the death penalty does exist in whatever goofy fake state Gotham City is in. In Joker: Last Laugh, the Joker is put on trial by the Gotham City DA for murder, convicted and senteced to be executed. . . but it turns out he wasn’t guilty of the particular murders in question, as Batman proves. (Batmans logic is not that the Joker particularly deserves to be spared, but that there is another guy out there who would otherwise get away with murder.)
The reason this doesn’t happen more often, is that the Joker is a grade A, certifiable nut-job. He’s nuttier than a box full of squirrels. Ordinary procedure, which usually happens off-camera, is that Batman hauls the Joker in for his latest crime. Joker gets processed, sent to arraignment and promptly pleads insanity and is locked up again in Arkham asylum.
Sure, but Batman does always trys to stop Joker from committing an evil act.
I’d love to write a story where somebody kills the Joker. Batman obviously won’t do it, & I’ll refrain from speculating why (this time). But the Joker isn’t some grudge-match arch-enemy who only goes after Batman. He endangers the whole city. I’d like to see some non-costumed P.I., or an average citizen in the right place at the right time, wipe that @Æ#& facepaint off and/or just shoot the twerp.
Thanks for the bad memory. I swore off Spidey after that whole “I wasn’t dead, I was in Eurpoe” pile of steaming crap.
Oh, yeah, I don’t think Jason “Robin II” Todd is coming back, either, thanks to the Joker.
In my universe, he isn’t.
Massachusetts. Gothamis, according to DC Comics, in Massachusetts.
Metropolis is in Delaware. 
Is there capital punishment in Gotham City?
This was a Batman graphic novel by Alan Moore that may have some insight as to our topic:
Batman goes to see the Joker at Arkham, basically to say, “Look, one of us is going to kill the other someday, and I’d like to at least be able to say that I made the attempt to avert that.” Of course, it turns out not to be the Joker he’s talking to – the Joker’s actually escaped.
The Joker concocts an elaborate scheme to drive Commisioner Gordon over the edge. He kidnaps Gordon, shoots Barbara, takes photos of her nude and bleeding body (she lives, but is paralyzed) and makes Gordon go through a funhouse ride decorated with blowups of the pictures (at an abandoned carnival). Batman traces them there, rescues Gordon, proceeds to pound the Joker, then stops. (In the midst of all of the above, we are treated to a somewhat revisionist origin of the Joker, where he’s basically this nice normal guy who got tricked into wearing the Red Hood disguise to help some crooks rob the playing card company next door to the chemical plant – he planned to make enough money from this to buy a house for he and his pregnant wife, only she died from testing an electric bottle heater. Anyway, the crooks got shot by armed guards, Batman chased the “Red Hood” who was scared to death, and dived into the river filled with pollutants. Enter, the Joker).
Batman offers to help the Joker overcome his problems. For a second, the Joker seems to seriously consider, but declines, saying it’s far too late for him. At the end, he tells a joke about two guys in an insane asylum, and Batman, after a pause, joins him in laughter.
The point of the above, IMHO, is that Batman may recognize that the Joker is insane, and he has reservations about killing, but especially someone not in full control of his faculties. YMMV.
<hijack>
There is a great gag where the Joker pulls a gun on Batman. He pulls the trigger, and a little flag saying
CLICK
CLICK
CLICK
shoots out. Joker stares at the gun, and blurts out: “Goddamn it. It’s empty!” 
</hijack>