beyelzu

Death penalty cases are much more expensive than other criminal cases and cost more than imprisonment for life with no possibility of parole. In California, capital trials are six times more costly than other murder trials. [1] A study in Kansas indicated that a capital trial costs $116,700 more than an ordinary murder trial.[2] Complex pre-trial motions, lengthy jury selections, and expenses for expert witnesses are all likely to add to the costs in death penalty cases. The irreversibility of the death sentence requires courts to follow heightened due process in the preparation and course of the trial. The separate sentencing phase of the trial can take even longer than the guilt or innocence phase of the trial. And defendants are much more likely to insist on a trial when they are facing a possible death sentence. After conviction, there are constitutionally mandated appeals which involve both prosecution and defense costs.

Most of these costs occur in every case for which capital punishment is sought, regardless of the outcome. Thus, the true cost of the death penalty includes all the added expenses of the "unsuccessful" trials in which the death penalty is sought but not achieved. Moreover, if a defendant is convicted but not given the death sentence, the state will still incur the costs of life imprisonment, in addition to the increased trial expenses.

For the states which employ the death penalty, this luxury comes at a high price. In Texas, a death penalty case costs taxpayers an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. [3] In Florida, each execution is costing the state $3.2 million. [4] In financially strapped California, one report estimated that the state could save $90 million each year by abolishing capital punishment. [5] The New York Department of Correctional Services estimated that implementing the death penalty would cost the state about $118 million annually. [6]


from www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

Shake

OK, thanks to Beyelzu's link, I finally can see some good, concrete numbers. Thank you for providing that. I still feel that the DP is warrented in some cases, so I don't agree with totally abolishing it just yet. What these numbers tell me is (something I've already said) that the system needs some serious help. We need to seriously re-evaluate our penal system and do a complete overhaul.

I really just skimmed over that information. I'll take a more detailed look at it when I'm not at work and have more time.

beyelzu

Personally,I think part of the problem arises from Supreme Court rulings about sentencing someone to death. Typically there has to be an aggravating felony as well as a murder. So people who rob a convenience store and shoot the clerk are charged with a capital offense. People who cold bloodedly murder there spouse are not. Also, an important consideration in the debate is the low recidivism rate among murderers. Most murderers are very unlikily to murder again, so the idea that the death penalty stops them from murderering again is pretty specious. Doesnt it seem that serial murderers are less likely to be sentenced to death. I said seems because i have never seen any statistics on that.

spurly

I'm one of those weird Christians who is against the death penalty. But I have a different reason than most. My idea is that we snuff the life out of someone, we are taking away any chance they might have to come to Christ and be saved. Thus, in a small sort of way we are condemning people for eternity.

Just my thoughts.

Kevin

hezekiah jones

Originally posted by Beyelzu
Personally, I think part of the problem arises from Supreme Court rulings about sentencing someone to death. Typically there has to be an aggravating felony as well as a murder.

The Supreme Court by and large has nothing to do with state sentencing guidelines. States have the police power, not the federal government. Generally speaking the examples you gave are not federal issues, so the Supreme Court has nothing to do with them.

8of9

Tim McVeigh allegedly wanted to die. We should have let him kill himself. Here is your pill, Mr. McVeigh. Happy trails.

"Death Row" should mean life without parole with the option of suicide.

It just seems that killing people who aren't imminently threatening teaches that killing is only *mostly* wrong.

Wouldn't it be better to send the message that even though suicide is wrong (as is reflected in our laws), at some point a human being's misery is such that we'll accept his decision to end it?

beyelzu

i got the above quote from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontl...s/history.html


basically after the 72 decision, in order to comply with the decision states had to codify the death penalty, giving aggravating circumstances, one such aggravating element is a felony murder, where the murder occurs during a felony which was my point.

Ab_Normal

I'm going off topic now.

There no longer seems to be a concept of "paying one's debt to society". The popular view is "once a criminal, always a criminal". Since there's no attempt to rehabilitate in prison, there's no assumption that rehabilitation can take place. It's a vicious cycle, which I believe contributes greatly to recidivism. And it doesn't help that offenses which used to be mere misdemeanors are now felonies with hard time.

Stephen Maturin

I'm against capital punishment for the usual utilitarian reasons. As for retributive justice, the only crimes that even arguably warrant execution are the sort committed by Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay. But in those cases there's yet another reason for not applying the death penalty: killing's too good for 'em.

Koiyotnik

I thought I should just clarify something.

To all of you who are disagreeing with Thieving Magpie's statment:
I'm not sure many of you are aware of it, but Canada's prison/penal system works a bit differently from that of the US. The primary objective of our system is to rehabilitate. Crimes such as drug possession do not carry as much weight in Canada as they do in America. As far as I know, capital punishment does not exist in our system.

I just did a quick search, and found that it was abolished in 1976. (Source )

I'm not as well versed on the criminal system of Canada as some of my peers, but I can direct any specific questions to them, if you wish.