What are the costs of life imprisonment and death penalty?

El Guapo

The numbers vary by state, but across the board it's not even close - it costs WAY more to execute a prisoner than to keep him incarcerated for life.

The reason for the disparity is that the government wants to be as sure as possible that it does not execute an innocent person. Toward that end, much more is spent on pre-trial preparation (most DP cases take about a year to come to trial), more pre-trial motions, more expert witnesses (on both sides), more attorneys (also on both sides), jury sequestration, security (needed because of more publicity in DP trials), an extra sentencing trial, and an exhaustive appeals process.

This disparity becomes even greater when you consider the time value of money. Most of the additional costs of capital punishment are up-front, occurring before and during the trial itself, whereas most of the costs of life imprisonment are spread over the term of incarceration. Any first-year finance student (or lottery official) can attest that a dollar up-front is WAY more burdensome than a dollar spread over 30-40 years.

Some think the high cost of capital punishment is why violent crime rates are HIGHER in death penalty jurisdictions - because these enormous costs drain resources from police, education, and other government programs that help reduce crime.

Even with all of these precautions in place, innocent people STILL get sentenced to death pretty regularly. In the last 35 years in the U.S., 130 people have been released from death row because they were exonerated by DNA evidence. These are ALL people who were found guilty â€œbeyond a reasonable doubt.â€ Unfortunately, DNA evidence is not available in most cases. So, as long as the death penalty is in place, you are pretty much GUARANTEED to occasionally execute an innocent person.

Many would argue that is the highest cost of all.

I hope that helps. See the website below for more detail.

tonalc2

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty

Cabbie Luvr

Costs of the Death Penalty | Death Penalty Information Center has a lot of the information you need.

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty

Additionally, here's an article with some more information.

http://sci.rutgers.edu/forum/archive/index.php/t-32248.html

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