The cost of capital punishment

IT MAY BE too soon to call it a trend, but 2 states have abolished the
death penalty in the past three years, and 10 others have legislation
pending. States and voters are reconsidering capital punishment, and many
have a new reason: money.


Cost was one of the factors New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson cited when
he signed repeal legislation last month. Richardson, a former supporter of
capital punishment, said he had traveled "a long personal journey on the
issue." But polls show New Mexico voters broadly supported the repeal,
which replaces the death penalty with life in prison without parole. New
Jersey abolished its death penalty in 2007.

Even more striking was the recent vote in the New Hampshire House to end
capital punishment there, since it came shortly after the state handed
down its 1st death sentence in 50 years. But Governor John Lynch has said
he will veto any repeal.

A recent study by the Urban Institute found that an average death penalty
trial costs a state about $2 million more than a murder trial where no
death penalty is sought. The Death Penalty Information Center estimates
that keeping an inmate on death row costs $90,000 a year in extra
security. Almost every state is facing a deficit, and getting smart about
corrections budgets is an unexpected side benefit.

Abolitionists will take whatever argument they can, but money isn't the
only, or the best, reason to stop executions. The death penalty is not a
deterrent to most deadly crimes. It is applied unevenly. It places the
United States among the world's most brutal regimes. And there are 130
other reasons: the 130 death-row inmates who were exonerated by new
evidence. Their deaths would have carried an awful price tag.

(source: Editorial, Boston Globe)