How much would it cost for the government to lethal injection a criminal, and to keep that criminal alive?

Question

I would like to know the difference. How much does it cost to lethal injection, i mean the total cost? How much does it cost to keep a prisone r alive for a lifetime?

Answer 1

The cost for administrating a lethal injection is well under $1000. Three drugs are given to dull the pain, put the criminal asleep and then to stop his heart. Since no doctor can prescribe these drugs or their doses (as per the Hippocratic Oath) massive doses are given. The chemicals can vary so I don't know their exact prices, but knowing government they are the cheapest drugs available.

Keeping a prison alive and confined has been estimated to cost between $19,000 and $20,000 per year. Crudely put this makes execution more cost effective. However, that reason should not be used instead the better test is how much of a threat the person is to society. If he has committed a crime strong enough to consider the death penalty and if confinement is a danger then the death penalty should be applied. It isn't a perfect decision, but we live in a flawed world.

Answer 2

I think your question is not just how much does the legal injection cocktail cost, or what it costs to turn on the lights in the execution room, but rather from start to finish, what is the cost of trying, convicting, managing the appeals, and executing a prisoner.
Here are some numbers:

This from California:
The average cost to house an inmate is about $33, 581 per year.
http://www.cya.ca.gov/ReportsResearch/historyCapital.html

And this from Florida:
"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).
http://www.mindspring.com/~phporter/econ.html
(There are other quotes on this mindspring page with cites, too.)
So, at 3.2 million per execution (a number which certainly has gone up), someone could be confined for 100 years.

Answer 3

prisoners get dental care college education and everything else in the pen, it is cheap to inject them 1 time

Answer 4

letah injection coctail aint the cheapest, nut it is far cheaper than payiing the room board medical and dental for life for the ofender

Answer 5

Would you be interested in reading a bit of a paper I wrote in my law class? The first is about the cost, and after that I will add just a bit more. If anyone would like to read it, let me know...


The costs of the death penalty are high for society, and often victimize further the family of the victim and of the accused. The costs are social, psychological, and financial. Not only do death-qualified trials cost more, but according to Amnesty International, costs from trial through the execution cost about 70% more than non-death cases through the end of incarceration in Kansas (1.26 million versus 740,000) and other states vary (2006). However, in all instances the death penalty is significantly more, often 2-3 times the cost. While these higher costs also reflect additional appeals and processes, these must be retained to protect individuals as much as we can.

This risk, of executing innocent people, is another aspect of the death penalty that causes serious concern. “The Death Penalty Information Center claims that 113 people in 25 states were freed from death row between 1973 and 2004 after it was determined that they were innocent,” Schmalleger reveals. Quoting famous criminal attorney Barry Scheck, he adds that “DNA testing has demonstrated that far more wrongful convictions occur than even the most cynical and jaded scholars had suspected.” Another study suggests that “our 23 years worth of findings reveal.. a system collapsing under the weight of it’s own mistakes.” (2006)

Over the course of America’s history the United States Supreme Court has tried to curtail abuses and errors in application of the death penalty; among case decisions involving the death penalty, they have found that death cannot be a mandatory punishment for murder (Woodson v. North Carolina, 1976) and that the penalty cannot be “grossly disproportionate to the crime” (Coker v. Georgia, 1977). Coker was expanded on in 1999 when the Court upheld statutes that dictate that “death penalties must be imposed where juries find a lack of mitigating factors that could offset obvious aggravating circumstances” (Boyde v. California). This means that courts must consider such things as the amount that the victim contributed to their own victimization, prior record of the defendant, level of education, circumstances surrounding the crime, etc. (Von Drehle, 1995). Methods of execution have also been addressed, with some forms being outlawed by either individual states or the United States. (Schmalleger, 2006).

DNA testing is also becoming more prevalent in cases where such testing might help clarify guilt or innocence. In fact, in 2001 George Ryan, governor of Illinois, declared an indefinite moratorium on executions “after DNA testing showed that 13 Illinois death row prisoners could not have committed the crimes of which they were convicted.” However, the American Civil Liberties notes that “many jurisdictions officials refuse to enable inmates to have evidence tested using modern DNA testing methods, arguing that this would reopen too many old cases. Perhaps, though unstated, they fear that wrongful convictions would highlight the many "mistakes" of the criminal justice system.” (2006). The result of such practices means denying some the chance to prove their own innocence. Isn’t the weight of a human life enough to justify such? Further, “it is conservatively estimated that more than 10,000 Americans are convicted of serious crimes they did not commit each year.” (Death Penalty Information Center, 2006).

The death penalty is founded on the principle of equity and feels that execution signifies a life for a life. Thus, most of us might assume that death is only possible in cases of ‘first degree,’ ‘capital,’ ‘grand’ or ‘aggravated’ murders (the terminology used in various states indicating deliberate, cold blooded murder, in essence); actually, among other interesting instances, California allows it for wrecking a train; Florida for ‘capital drug trafficking and capital sexual battery;’ Georgia permits death for plane hijacking; Idaho for ‘aggravated kidnapping;’ Louisiana adds ‘aggravated rape of victim under age 12;’ Mississippi for ‘aircraft piracy;’ and South Dakota lists ‘aggravated kidnapping;’ The Federal government sanctions the death penalty for non-murder offenses such as Espionage (18 U.S.C. 794), Treason (18 U.S.C. 2381), Trafficking in large quantities of drugs (18 U.S.C. 3591(b)) and “Attempting, authorizing or advising the killing of any officer, juror, or witness in cases involving a Continuing Criminal Enterprise, regardless of whether such killing actually occurs. (18 U.S.C. 3591(b)(2))” (DPIC, 2006). The last two provisions for execution are especially frightening; linked to the Patriot’s Act hidden crime control agenda, it is possible to imagine a time when false accusations, meaningless comments, and railroading could lead to investigations under the Patriot’s Act that bypass Constitutional requirements and end, ultimately, in death. The death penalty for drug dealers is even more preposterous. As noted, even if you take the concept of retribution as valid justification for the ultimate sanction, how can it conscionably be used as a moral control punishment? That is, ‘the punishment should fit the crime’ as the Supreme Court decreed in Coker v. Georgia (1977). Isn’t execution ‘grossly disproportionate’ to selling drugs?

Ironically, Former Supreme Court Justice William Brennan declared that, “a punishment is ‘cruel and unusual’...if it does not comport with human dignity,” in Furman. He later opined that “Evolving standards of human decency will finally lead to the abolition of the death penalty in this country.” (As cited in Schmalleger, 2006). This has happened in other industrialized nations. Currently, we are the “only Western industrialized nation” that puts its citizens to death, notes the American Civil Liberties Union. “In comparison, all of Western Europe has abolished the death penalty, either by decree of law, or by practice.” Fifty-seven nations have eliminated the death penalty totally, and fifteen others only apply it for “exceptional crimes such as military law or wartime crimes.” Twenty six countries are “abolitionist de facto, meaning they have not executed anyone during the past ten years or more” or have “made an international commitment not to carry out executions.” Even among those countries still practicing executions, the United States “far exceeds the other 94...that continue to deliver the death penalty.” (2006)



There is more... but I know this is too long as it is. Wonder if anyone will read it???????