Whitch cost more the death penalty or life without parole?

Vince P

Life without parole costs the state much more money.

goose1077

I'm no authority on this but I have heard, death. It makes sense though. Higher security, endless appeals.

whitefangz1

It has been estimated that by the time someone is actually executed, we will have spent at least four times more on them than we would have had we put them in prison for life.
Capital murder trials are expensive events. The state must live up to a very high burden of proof, and the defense understandably needs to fight with every defense option they have.
At least one appeal is mandatory, but often there are multiple appeals. No, we can't eliminate the appeals. Appeals are based upon procedural errors or misconduct. Denying any legitimate appeal means that the defendant is not being given his constitutional right to a fair trail and due process.
Housing a death row inmate is expensive as well because of the need for much greater security and monitoring.
Any attempt to cut the cost of this process either results in denying the defendant his constitutional rights or reducing security. Those are two things that we simply do not want to do. Keep in mind that we are talking about a legal process seeking to end someone's life. You do not want to make any mistakes here. It is expensive because it should be.
Fun Facts:
A study in Kansas showed the death penalty in their state costs 70% more.
Tennessee reports that they spend 48% more on a death penalty trial versus a non-death penalty trial.
California reports that the death penalty costs $250 million as opposed to housing the inmates for life at a cost of $136 million.
A federal study found that the death penalty would cost more even if we only factored in the cost of the death penalty trial versus housing an inmate for life.
A Duke University study found that the cost of putting someone to death in NC is $2.16 million more than housing an inmate for life.
These findings come directly from Federal and State budget and cost analysis reports. I have included the links to them in case anyone wants to research it for themselves.
Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with the death penalty, it is a simple fact that the death penalty costs more, according to the Federal Government and the costs published by every death penalty state. The morality of capital punishment is opinion. The cost is fact.

cinder a

Death penalty, due to the costly amount of appeals. It is a statical fact. This is discussed all the time. The Death Penalty is more costly.

BigOrlandoNerd

The death penalty costs much more than life without parole the comparison isn't even close.

Sparkle

I think the figures are very uncertain, but someone calculated a few years back that the death penalty is more expensive. It requires single cells in a specially guarded death row, etc. It also requires, in most states, numerous appeals and other procedures, and the average wait on death row before execution tends to run more than ten years.

Life without parole is cheaper because it's the usual prison routine - an ordinary, usually shared, cell in an ordinary cell block, the usual prison food and routine, nothing special. And life sentence without parole is not many years longer than the wait on death row for many who are given the death sentence.

ianmoniq

I've heard the death penalty. Appeals, plus our government has to oversee the death penalty procedure in each facility that performs it constantly. I've been involved in some of the hearings and the states attorney sometimes have an agenda and give those prison workers a horrible time about it, despite the fact that they're not the ones that decided we'd have the death penalty, just the ones that have to carry out because it's their job. It's despicable.

Kayla

Death penalty. Mostly because of how long people end up on death row before actually being executed.

TotalRecipeHound

In terms of financial cost to the state, the death penalty costs more. All of you who think life in prison costs less have truly never looked at the $$$.

Texas may be the exception.

Susan S

Death penalty. Why is the death penalty so expensive? The costs of the death penalty begin to accumulate from the very beginning of a death penalty case. Here are excerpts of reports from a few individual states.

Washington State â€œAt the trial level, death penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the prosecution and defense over the cost of trying the same case as an aggravated murder without the death penalty and costs of $47,000 to $70,000 for court personnel.â€ (Final Report of the Death Penalty Subcommittee of the Committee on Public Defense, Washington State Bar Association, December 2006,
http://www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/committeeonpublicdefense.htm

Tennessee: â€œDeath penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.â€ (The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research's Report, "Tennessee's Death Penalty: Costs and Consequences."
http://www.comptroller.state.tn.us/orea/reports/deathpenalty.pdf)

Kansas: â€œThe study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases. The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).â€ (. Kansas: Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections)

North Carolina: The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than the a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/northcarolina.pdf
links to ("The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina" Duke University, May 1993)

Why are death penatly cases so expensive? Here are a few of the contributing factors:

â€¢ more pre-trial time will be needed to prepare: cases typically take a year to come to trial
â€¢ more pre-trial motions will be filed and answered
â€¢ more experts will be hired
â€¢ twice as many attorneys will be appointed for the defense, and a comparable team for the prosecution
â€¢ jurors will have to be individually quizzed on their views about the death penalty, and they are more likely to be sequestered
â€¢ two trials instead of one will be conducted: one for guilt and one for punishment
â€¢ the trial will be longer: a cost study at Duke University estimated that death penalty trials take 3 to 5 times longer than typical murder trials

From legislative testimony, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/COcosttestimony.pdf on why the death penalty is so expensive.

D.C.

Death is cheaper. But do we have the right to take their life?

Bandaloop Doctor

death penalty, much higher.

Mr. Tickle

Cost in dollars=Life without parole
Cost in moral degeneration of a society that kills to show killing is wrong=death penalty

arothman.com

Depends on the location and the type of execution. Sometimes the money involved in killing someone is more than keeping them alive. Also, many people who go to death row never actually get executed and end up staying there for a long time. It's also important to note that the number of people being exonerated from death row by DNA evidence is rising... it can cost a lot to pay someone back for decades of wrongful imprisonment.

Susa

death penalty costs more, but it doesn't have to be. All we have to do is bring back the Old West hanging style or shooting squad. Afterall, a noose and several bullets wouldn't cost that much.

Dan

Due to the cost of lawyers and court costs, it costs more to execute someone than to keep them in jail until they die of natural causes. The difference is about a million dollars.

Regards,
Dan

Michael B

life without parole

David

life without parole

perfectlybaked

Life sentence costs a lot more.

A murderer sentenced to life in prison screws over the victim, fools the jury, pays the lawyer, and ends up screwing over the victim's family by being supported by their tax dollars. It is the biggest irony of a "sentence" that could ever exist in the "justice" system.

The murderer ends up winning. The murderer kills someone, then he gets to live off of the government with a roof over his head and food, even while innocent homeless people have to sleep out in the rain.

I say if you are going to lock someone up forever, for murder, they should be assigned to hard labor at least, which I think only exists in one state, Texas, which sentences most murderers to death anyway. In Texas there is a lot less weed to ruin justice and the judgement of jurors.

Look at all these people questioning our "right" to enforce the death penalty! They're idiots! What "right" did the murderer have to take the victim's life?!?!

They think backwards. It is so confounding.

life without parole costs more as after death everything is free.

BabyMama

life in prison, the death penalty gets rid of them quick and cheap.

Jugglins

it depends on the age and health of the criminal. If they are in their 20 or 30's then life if they are in their 70 or 80's the death since they will die of natural causes before they complete the costly and exhausting process of appeals

trouble_sum81

Life obviously. I have been in jail and it costs taxpayers over 1,000$ a day to house an inmate, that is without the cost of feeding them, giving them health care, and things like that. So imagine 30-40- or even 50 years worth of days.

I Believe In Harvey Dent

The latter
taxpayers fund prisons
which is better than the alternative... aka Texas' death penalty rate.

James F

simple ...4 oz of poision or feed and bathe a man for 25 years to life.....poision it is

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: