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A preliminary study by South Dakotans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, examining first-degree murder cases since 1985 that have resulted in a death sentence or life in prison, found that on average, legal costs in death penalty cases exceeded those in the other cases by $353,105.
As a result, some estimate that it costs U.S. taxpayers between $50 and $90 million dollars more per year (depending on the jurisdiction) to prosecute death penalty cases than life sentences. A number of states have taken notice of this fact, particularly in the wake of the “Great Recession.”.
• Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution.
Prison costs taxpayers $80 billion a year. It costs some families everything they have. Telita Hayes has spent thousands of dollars keeping in touch with her ex-husband, William Reese, who is incarcerated at Louisiana State Penitentiary.
This analysis of the dollar costs of capital punishment and life imprisonment uses data from a variety of States an studies and concludes that the death penalty is not an economical alternative to life imprisonment. The capital and noncapital processes involve pretrial, trial, and posttrial levels.
Excluding state prison costs, the study found, cases that result in death sentences may be three-to-four times more expensive. Excluding state prison costs, the difference was even more stark: $1.1 million for death sentences vs. $315,159 for other non-capital cases.
The cost of life in prison varies depending on the state and the type of prison. However, the average cost per inmate is around $30,000 per year.
The findings clearly show that the costs for death penalty trials and appeals for both Oregon and Washington have increased significantly over time. Understanding all of the reasons why costs...
The death penalty in the U.S. is an enormously expensive and wasteful program with no clear benefits. All of the studies on the cost of capital punishment conclude it is much more expensive than a system with life sentences as the maximum penalty.
In the 32 states in the Union where the death penalty is legal, as well as the federal government, the death penalty has grown to be much more expensive than life imprisonment, whether with...