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Capital punishment is believed to be less expensive than life in prison. However the average time on death row is 15.8 years and the annual cost in California for the death penalty system is $232million compared to $11.5 million for lifetime incarceration (DPIC, 2014).…
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The state criminal and judiciary law department of Kansas has concluded that it costs the state about 72% more in expenses for death penalty cases as compared to non-death penalty cases such as life in prison. The study examined that a death penalty case fully executed cost a median of $1.26 million; that money could be utilized elsewhere in a much more beneficial way for society. According to deathpenaltyinfo.org, a website built to spread information and awareness about the death sentence, as of April, 2015 there are about 3,002 inmates currently on death row. Multiply that by $1.26 million per person and we find that the cost of keeping all of the inmates to be killed by lethal injection costs America nearly $3.8 billion. If we take all of the inmates currently on death row and pardon them to life in prison, it would save the United States at least $2.6…
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Furthermore, there are serious economic consequences. Various state governments estimate that a single death penalty case, from the point of arrest to execution costs $1 million to $7 million per case. The million dollars spent on capital punishment cuts into resources for other community interests, such as schools, hospitals, public safety and…
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One other point the opponents are makings is that capital punishment costs more than life-imprisonment. According to their studies, the U.S. spends between $1 and $7 million on capital cases, from arrest to execution, compared to life imprisonment which costs…
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Moreover, there is a tremendous contrast of price tags between capital punishment and a life sentence without parole. In some cases, the costs of executing a defendant triples the regular cost of life in jail. For the reason being there are extended procedures, higher cost of trials and heavier lawyer fees, an upsetting and excessive amount of money taken from the pockets of taxpayers. That is to say it is estimated to cost three million dollars for the average death penalty and by eliminating it and opting for life sentences would save hundreds millions dollars annually in which can then be devoted to other areas such as healthcare or education. Despite the price we pay for the sustenance of the system, it does not impede crime rates and contrary…
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The death penalty uses an unnecessary amount of America’s budget. The amount of money we spend on the death penalty could be put to better use. “Death penalty cases are much more expensive than other criminal cases and cost more than imprisonment for life with no possibility of parole. A study in Kansas indicated that a capital trial costs $116,700 more than an ordinary…
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In Texas, each death row case costs approximately $2.3 million dollars. The state has 300 people currently on death row, but still manages to have one of the highest murder rates in the U.S. In New Jersey, 500 police officers were laid off because of lack of funds. Even in Georgia 900 prison workers were laid off, because of money problems. Due to these money problems, when the budget crisis hit Florida the state released 3,000 prisoners early. This in turn threatened public safety. It is actually cheaper for prisoners to spend their lives in prison without parole rather than be executed…
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It takes only a $100 for a lethal injection and it takes over $47000 to keep someone in jail for a year. Multiply that with 25 and you $1175000 which are innocent citizens tax money which can go to something way better. $1175000 is only 25 years it's not even a life sentence. Which is another reason for the death penalty to be legal since canada's life sentence is only 25 years the criminals can come out of jail and try to hurt the victim's family for revenge.…
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In his article Why The Death Penalty Needs To Die, Gillespie mentions that in California alone, $4 billion dollars was spent on administering death penalty cases between 1980 and 2012. That is a lot of money that was wasted on something so useless. In Here's Why We Need to Kill the Death Penalty, Senator Daylin Leach states how unaffordable it is to process, try, and carry out a death penalty sentencing. So much money is spent on the death penalty. Billions and billions of dollars are spent just to have the death penalty. The country is in debt enough as it is. The average case costs about $740,000. With cases that aim for the death penalty it costs around $1.26 million. It costs $90,000 dollars more in taxpayer money to manage a prisoner on…
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The costs of the death penalty are dramatically different than the costs of housing a prisoner. The annual costs for a single prisoner are very high. A study released by NBC Right Now claims that Washington taxpayers pay $35,897 for each prisoner annually. All of that money goes towards food, shelter, health care, mental health care, clothing, and other general utilities. Prison staff salaries and the cost to build a prison are not included in this figure. Almost $36,000 for a single prisoner; now multiply that by the over 2,000,000 inmates currently imprisoned in the US- it equals over seventy one billion dollars each year. If a 25 year old is convicted of murder…
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The cost to execute a person is much more than it costs to put the person in prison for life without a chance of parole. In California, a study shows that death penalty trials are more than twenty times as expensive as putting someone in prison for life without the possibility of parole. California spends over $184 million on the death penalty each year, and many other states follow suit. If the death penalty is discontinued, the cash used on it could benefit the families tremendously. Families could use this cash to obtain counseling and other assistance to help them put their lives back together. Also, remaining cash can be used in other public assistance such as education, drug and alcohol treatment, and child abuse prevention…
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My data/evidence: According to a California Assessment of Costs by Judge Arthur Alarcon and Prof. Paula Mitchell, the cost of the death penalty has cost the taxpayers of California over $4 billion since 1978. They also calculated a savings of $170 million per year if the Governor was to commute the sentences of those remaining on death row to life without parole. That would be a savings of over $5 billion over the next 20 years for California alone.…
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One reason the death penalty is wrong is because it is just too expensive. On August 3, 2006, Diane Grey Davis, an avid blogger, researched this topic and posted a blog on the Greensboropeerpressure website showing the cost of execution versus the cost of housing an inmate for life. It said that in California, the death penalty costs taxpayers $114 million per year beyond the costs of keeping convicts locked up for life. Also, in Indiana, the costs of the death penalty exceed the complete costs of life without parole sentences by 38%. In Texas, the death penalty costs on average $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years (Davis, 2006). Studies show that the cost of building a maximum-security prison cell is $63,000, which breaks down to about $5,000 a year in principal and interest. The annual cost to maintain an inmate in this cell is about $20,000 a year, which when combined, equal a total of $25,000 a year to hold an inmate in prison. An inmate serving a life term…
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The death penalty now viewed as so barbaric that the views around the world have shifted so much that the U.S continuous to be the only country in Western Democracy to carry it out (Manning & Rhoden-Trader, 2000). The U.S has now begun to recognize so many problems that the death penalty system has such as it being unequally applied to minorities time and time again. Furthermore, the cost of carrying out an execution is staggering compared to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Inmates that were sitting on death row have been and continue to be exonerated which means innocent people can be put to death. One other major problems with the death penalty and statistics have shown that it simple does not deter crime. For these reasons and more I believe we should abolish the death penalty and never look…
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From deathpenalty.org, a 2011 study found that California spent more than four billion dollars on capital punishment. The cost of keeping a prisoner in jail for life is twenty times less expensive than having an execution occur. This justifies how abolishing the death penalty would be good for our society because those funds can be spent on education, helping hospitals, and jobs. From deathpenaltyinfo.org another study found that it costs about 1.94 billion for the pre-trial and trial costs, in total, everything would be 4.6 billion dollars. This cost is paid by tax money, that is 49 billion dollars that go towards killing someone, this shows that this money would be better off if it was spent on assistance for the poor and education. If the prisoner was later found innocent, and exonerated, 4.6 billion would go down the drain- money that could have been used for better effects and would have saved the life of someone…
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