the cost of keeping a 25-year-old inmate for 50 years at present amounts to $805,000. Assuming 75 years as an average life span, the $805,000 figure would be the cost of life in prison. So roughly it's costing us $2 million more to execute someone than it would cost to keep them in jail for life.

Sentencing a prisoner to life in prison is a better allocation of resources than sentencing him to be executed.

First I'll present figures representing the dollar costs of capital punishment versus life in prison/no parole. Then I'll discuss the deterrent effect as the only legitimate rational justification for capital punishment. Then I'll discuss the externalities of capital punishment.

A Duke University study found... "The death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of imprisonment for life." ( The costs of processing murder cases in North Carolina / Philip J. Cook, Donna B. Slawson ; with the assistance of Lori A. Gries. [Durham, NC] : Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University, 1993.)

"The death penalty costs California $90 million annually beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system - $78 million of that total is incurred at the trial level." (Sacramento Bee, March 18, 1988).

"A 1991 study of the Texas criminal justice system estimated the cost of appealing capital murder at $2,316,655. In contrast, the cost of housing a prisoner in a Texas maximum security prison single cell for 40 years is estimated at $750,000." (Punishment and the Death Penalty, edited by Robert M. Baird and Stuart E. Rosenbaum 1995 p.109 )

"Florida spent an estimated $57 million on the death penalty from 1973 to 1988 to achieve 18 executions - that is an average of $3.2 million per execution."
(Miami Herald, July 10, 1988).

"Florida calculated that each execution there costs some $3.18 million. If incarceration is estimated to cost $17000/year, a comparable statistic for life in prison of 40 years would be $680,000."
(The Geography of Execution... The Capital Punishment Quagmire in America, Keith Harries and Derral Cheatwood 1997 p.6)

Figures from the General Accounting Office are close to these results. Total annual costs for all U.S. Prisons, State and Federal, was $17.7 billion in 1994 along with a total prison population of 1.1 million inmates. That amounts to $16100 per inmate/year

Ahhh...but what accounts for these costs?

Yep.

And FH... I was not splitting hairs. One could use the same argument for abortion. Render to Ceasar... but I don't want one penny of my tax dollars to go to killing a baby! So, as a society where we are the government... I am responsible for how my money is spent. And BTW... you can arrest anyone breaking the law... you have that authority... you have the authority to even issue a traffic violation to someone. See a crime committed and don't like the way it is handled... file a private criminal complaint. Heck... even our constitution gave us the right to wage war against our own government should they stop working on our behalf. The right to bear arms is so that we do not live under a tyranical rule... not to protect us against some foreign threat. Okay... maybe now I am splitting hairs...but it is true!

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Hey...my tax dollars are paying rent and hospital expenses for pregnant teens...I would prefer that those dollars be spent keeping dangerous people off the street permanently.

The vast majority is court costs... the trial and appeals... and do away with the appeals and more innocents are executed... of that there is NO doubt.

MEDC- Thanks for the information. If you have it, I'd also like to know the average length of appeals and imprisonment time per execution.

Time in prison and the $16100 per year for incarceration would be a "wash" it would seem, so I'm interested in the part that is attributed to Defense manuevering and appeals for those who are ultimately executed in compliance with the original trial and sentencing.

I will see what I can come up with...but again... if 10 people in the country are exonerated on appeal each year and not executed ... and BTW... there have been more than 10 just in Texas this year (2007)...then it is obvious that the appeal process is necessary.

Please explain to me how any person that values life could be in favor of a system that has been proven to execute innocents. If it were to save lives... protect ourselves... I could understand that collateral damages must be weighed against the good of the operation. That is why I was able to do my job everyday. But there are other options here that assure that if a mistake is made we can do something to correct it.

Agree 100% MEDC.

In the past two decades, federal and state courts have overturned 68 percent of the death sentences they have reviewed because of serious errors in their trials, according to a new study. And in cases sent back for retrials, 82 percent of convicted capital defendants received new sentences that were other than death -- including 7 percent who were found innocent.

I think also [this is a Christian issue end disclaimer] that we just have to accept that God does allow or permit innocent people to die.

Now...does that mean that he WANTS them to die or only that he will permit it?

Am I getting in the way by removing a system such as the death penalty or putting my will or disdain ahead of what scripture calls a correct action?

I really don't know.

I do know that most christians I have asked prefer counseling and tough love for their wayward teens and spouses.

I think it's a relevent oppositional comparison.

And trust me... the numbers are higher... the court system works much the same as doctors and hospitals... MANY times errors that have caused a patients death are not reported when they are discovered. People do not want to hand out information that puts them at risk for financial or criminal penalty. I have seen the system work first hand. I have testified in murder trials where numerous "eye witnesses" have seen different things.

There was an exercise that they did when I was in the academy. We were in a study class and the back door burst open... a man pulled a gun and "shot" the instructor four times. He then ran from the room. Afterwards the instructor stood up and asked us to write a description of the events and the perpetrator... WE WERE TRAINED OBSERVERS! The description of both the perp and the act were all over the place...very few were alike. This from trained individuals. Mistakes happen every day in convictions. Every day... no exceptions. And since murder has the highest conviction rate among major crimes, it stands to reason that more mistakes are made in capital cases than all others.
MM is a fan of Thomas Jefferson....

he wrote...

I shall ask for the abolishment of the penalty of death until the infallibility of human hands is displayed to me.

I am not a Jefferson fan... but he hits the nail on the head.

Look this stuff is all fact... I respect a persons right to see this differently... but at least know what you are doing and why. Too many have no clue as to what goes on in the justice system. Just like they have no idea of what goes on in the womb. Innocents are being killed in each.

As far as God not allowing innocents to die... one word... abortion.

Well exactly MEDC,

I was actually thinking of the famous saved from the fiery furnace OT story [guess which one].

I was thinking that they were spared because there was some specific plan...there was a purpose behind the miracle.

Everyone else burned and died.

God does not regard our lives with the same perspective that we do.

gotcha.

One other interesting piece of info...

Out of the top ten safest countries for murder... only Singapore (which BTW is number 10 on the list!) allows capital punishment. All of the other top 9 countries do not allow for capital punishment for any crime.
Also... when Canada (which is not on the list) stopped allowing executions, their murder rate dropped 33%. Just some interesting facts to consider.

And in the 10 worst countries for murder (the US is not on this list) 60% of these allow executions for certain crimes.