I’ve heard it’s more expensive to sentence somebody to death than to give that person a life sentence . If you give somebody a life sentence, you have to feed and clothe him until he dies, and that runs into money . Does it cost as much to execute somebody ? I’ll be fair … it’s not the execution that’s so expensive . What’s involved in sentencing somebody to death that costs so much money ?
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Keeping someone on death row is more expensive than in the general population. (In California, each death row prisoner costs $175,000 more per year than those in general population.)
All death penalty cases go through extensive appeals for many years, and the prisoner’s attorney is provided by the state. All court costs are paid by the state.
Because the legal system can be very expensive. The meter is running constantly for both sides, and it can take years to wind through the appeal process for a case like that.
Meanwhile, the prison probably is paid for, food and clothing expenses are pretty small, and there aren’t many other marginal costs.
it doesn’t just cost more
…it cost Many times more.
Up to 10x more.
because of Lawyers and Appeals
Killing someone makes us no better then them, beside how many deathrow immates have been found out to be innocent. How much do you think they’d spend for killing an innocent man’s family?
It can often take over 20 yrs or longer for a inmate sentenced to death to be executed. There is the appeals process and inmates sentenced to death are often kept in a separate facility from the general population. All this adds up
It is much more expensive. This 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:
“The 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).” (Kansas: Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections)
Some of the factors:
• more pre-trial time will be needed to prepare: cases typically take a year to come to trial
• more pre-trial motions will be filed and answered
• more experts will be hired
• twice as many attorneys will be appointed for the defense, and a comparable team for the prosecution
• jurors will have to be individually quizzed on their views about the death penalty, and they are more likely to be sequestered
• two trials instead of one will be conducted: one for guilt and one for punishment
• 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
You’ll find links to reports from numerous states at http://deathpenaltyinfo.org/costs-death-penalty
Good question. Some of the others here have good answers regarding death row incarceration and legal costs.
It’s true, and it’s not even close – it costs WAY more to execute a prisoner than to keep him incarcerated for life.
The numbers differ by state, but 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, death row incarceration (way more expensive than regular maximum security) 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 – every extra dollar spent on capital punishment is one that’s NOT going to police, education, drug treatment facilities, women’s shelters, and other government programs that help reduce crime.
Even with all of these expensive precautions in place, innocent people STILL get sentenced to death pretty regularly. Since 1973 in the U.S., 139 people have been released from death row because they were exonerated by DNA and other evidence. These are ALL people who were found guilty “beyond a reasonable doubt.” 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.
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