Sep 30th, 2008
Posted by Suzanne Ito, ACLU at 4:02pm	Capital Punishment

Life in Prison is No Bailout

Here's an angle to the economic bailout-rescue-panic package that you probably haven't thought of: the exorbitant cost of capital punishment to death penalty states. From California, to Maryland, to Tennessee, to New Jersey, the taxpayer burden to execute a prisoner is significantly higher than the cost of a life sentence. Jack Payden-Travers of the ACLU's Capital Punishment Project writes today in the Pasadena Star-News:

In Maryland, the Urban Institute study of March 2008 noted that it costs the state three times more to try a death penalty case than a non-death penalty case. The report stated that "an average capital-eligible case resulting in a death sentence will cost approximately $3 million, $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty was not sought."

…Since 1977 we've carried out over 1,100 executions in this country to the tune of what is conservatively estimated over $1 billion…

That money has only purchased a system that doesn't work. In the last 3 decades, 129 individuals have been released from death row because they were innocent. That's one exoneration for every 9 executions. Would you buy a car that failed to start one time out of 10?

Jack points out that there are approximately 3,300 men and women on death row right now. That's billions of dollars to execute these prisoners. The death penalty is a morally and fiscally bankrupt policy, and it's time to abolish it.

Permalink |	Capital Punishment

1. Jared Lessl Says:
   Oct 2nd, 2008 at 11:01am

   > In the last 3 decades, 129 individuals have been released from death row because they were innocent

   What I want to know is, how many of those 129 inmates were released because of DNA forensics that were unavailable when they were first convicted? According to Wikipedia, the first such case where DNA fingerprinting was used was in 1987, and presumably didn't become standard and commonplace for several years afterwards.

   The morality and effectiveness of capital punishment aside, we really do need to establish how accurate our conviction rate is with fairly modern technology. Mixing convictions from different eras that have two vastly different accuracies muddles that a great deal. That 10% figure, while appalling, doesn't necessarily reflect the state of affairs today.

   That said, modern convictions would have to be impressively accurate to even begin to offset the very good arguments against the death penalty.

2. sade Says:
   Oct 29th, 2008 at 8:12am

   I agree with your abti-capital punishment ad.

3. Kevin Says:
   Mar 28th, 2009 at 3:13pm

   A question or two.

   Are we comparing apples to apples in the cost analysis? In other words, granting that a Death Penalty case is more expensive than a typical non-death penalty case is one thing but how much more expensive is it over the long haul than a Life Without Parole case? If the comparison suggests accurately that the death penalty is several times more expensive that would be the exact same case had life been sought I can see the comparison but if the average of non-death cases includes grafitti charges etal. it seems a bit of a shaky ground upon which to make an argument.

   Moreover what percentage of individuals sentenced to a life term actually remain for the duration of their natural lives?