Would it be more costly to put someone in jail for life, or use the death penalty?

Quizzard

The death penalty PROCESS costs many times what jail costs. The reason for that is the long series of appeals, mostly at taxpayer expense. Since eliminating those appeals raises moral questions, the Supreme Court has ruled that they are necessary.

Some stuides have placed the average cost of a death penalty case (to execution) at as much as $11 million.

I'm amused, but not surprised, to see how many people blindly claiming jail costs more. Do some research, people.

Lizzy(:

The death penalty costs more, mostly due to the fact that death penalty trials and appeals are longer and more costly. Also, the inmate typically spends years on death row, and death row prison housing requires more security and costs more than regular prison

WRG

If it weren't for the cost of nearly endless appeals that happen during the death penalty it would be cheaper. But those appeals are there and aren't going away any time soon.

Michael

It would appear that due to the long appeals process (which can take up to 20 years), the amount of money to fight those appeals, and the extra cost of housing a death row prisoner, it ends up cheaper to imprison someone for life than to execute them.

msi_cord

The process of going through the death penalty usually costs more. There generally are more lawyers and more expensive lawyers in capital cases. The process itself takes longer. There is a mandatory appeals process that can stretch for years. Most of this is all done with prosecutors and public defenders (all paid for by the taxpayers). This process happens to be very expensive and time consuming.

In most states, it costs at least twice as much to put someone to death as it does to put them in prison for life. I have attached a link that has a summary of these costs broken down by state and has links to each state's report.

Susan S

The death penalty costs much, much more. It has to do with the legal costs of the process, which is supposed to prevent executions of innocent people.

The largest part of the costs are upfront, at the pre trial and trial stages, and they are in play whether or not there is a conviction, let alone a death sentence. Study after study confirms this. Here is part of one report that explains it well:

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)

Some of the 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

Specific cases (California.)
People v. Scott Peterson, Death Penalty Trial
$3.2 Million Total
People v. Rex Allen Krebs Death Penalty Trial
$2.8 Million Total
People v. Cary Stayner, Death Penalty Trial
$2.368 Million Total
People v. Robert Wigley, Non-Death Penalty Trial
$454,000 Total

This data is for cases where the best records are kept.

http://aclunc.org/issues/criminal_justice/death_penalty/frequently_asked_questions_about_the_costs_of_california%27s_death_penalty.shtml

out2lunch4now2

It costs about $20,000 per year to house the average criminal. A bullet costs a few cents. A scaffold and rope would cost, maybe, $500. A kick in the pants from a high flying airplane on a normally scheduled flight would be, well, priceless.

Tim Tam

Jail costs heaps more. My legal teacher told me jail costs on average $220 a day for each prisoner. Multiply that by 365 x (number of years in life sentence) and that is a seven digit number you have. This is the cost for one prisoner, annually. It sounds unbelievable but when you think about the cost of hiring those security guards, maintenance costs, repairs, food, entertainment and cost of other staff it begins to make sense.

OK i change my mind, seeing that death penalty paper link above, and realising the death penalty PROCEDURE is not just a short one.

wizjp

Most cases the death penalty. Every instance is different

good facts here

http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html#D.Cost

txredneckcop

I'm a firm believer in a person given the death penalty being able to appeal his conviction, but once his convictions been upheld, it would be cheaper to kill him dead, dead, dead, so he can't hurt anyone else!

rustupd

JAIL
rope/chair/injection/bullit are a better choice

Brandon L

putting them in jail because the tax payers have to pay for food and such

Non Sequitur

Jail costs far more. A bullet or a rope is far cheaper.

lbgirlinvb

Do you mean cost more financially or morally? Financially it'll cost more for life in prison, but morally if we killed everyone with a life in prison future generations would probably think we had no heart and were barbaric. Personally, if you have life imprisonment you should be put to death. They cause so much extra unnecessary expenses and trouble for the prison, govt., and tax payers.

Ms CYPRAH

Death penalty is far more economical because once that person is dead there is no further cost to the state.

However, keeping someone in prison for life is a wiser option than execution, just in case they are innocent, because they can always be released if their situation changes. That is not possible when they are dead!!

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