looking at the cost of capital punishment would you still consider it a viable sentencing option why orwhy not

Answer 1

its barbaric and a waste of money

Answer 2

First here is some information specifically about the cost of the death penalty.

The death penalty costs much more than life in prison. Here are some reasons for this.

Pre trial costs are much greater because, once a suspect is caught, the prosecutor must do a separate investigation into the crime, into the suspect himself, that is, does the suspect have mental retardation (if so, he cannot face the death penalty) or mental illness (he can face the death penalty). If the prosecutor decides to seek the death penalty, the trial will have two separate phases, one to decide guilt, one to decide the penalty and each phase requires its own set of witnesses. The process of choosing jurors is much more complicated in death penalty cases. Many more pre-trial motions are filed by both sides and have to be answered. Prosecution teams use more lawyers, and where the money is available, by the defense as well. Death penalty cases take much longer to try. If the sentence is death, the prisoner will be locked up in a separate prison facility, which is generally much expensive to run and to maintain. It is only at this point that appeals begin and costs continue to mount up. .

As an example, in New York State, the average annual cost to incarcerate someone not on death row is about $35,000 per year. On the other hand, in the years since 1995, when New York State brought back a death penalty law, 7 people were sentenced to death, none had more than one appeal and 3 had not even had their first appeal. New York shelled out well over $200,000,000 for its capital punishment system since 1995. Assuming each of the 7 men lives for 40 years the cost to incarcerate all of them for life would be under 10 million dollars.

If the death penalty process were speeded up, the costs would still be much higher than with life sentences and many innocent men who were on death row for years would have been executed.

Here are some other verifiable and sourced facts about the death penalty.

The death penalty risks executing innocent people (123 already exonerated) and DNA is available in less than 10% of all homicides.

The death penalty is not a deterrent. Most killers do not even think they will be caught (if they think at all.) Homicide rates are higher in states with the death penalty.

Life without parole is now on the books in 48 states. It means what it says. Supermax prisons are terrible places to spend the rest of your life. (See any of the MSNBC documentaries about them.)

The death penalty can be very hard on families of murder victims.

The death penalty does not apply to the worst of the worst. It applies to defendants with the worst lawyers.

48% of Americans prefer life without parole and 47% prefer the death penalty. We are learning.

Answer 3

The purpose of the justice system is to do Justice, not be cost effective. I was against the death penalty until I became a cop. 17 years later I am all for it. People in jail for capital crimes still wake up every morning. The read, eat, sleep, converse, write. The have memories, they dream dreams. They mentally relive moments they enjoyed (like killing their victims). Sometimes they become cause celebs!

Meanwhile their victims are dead. It most cases they spent their last moments in terror and fear. They died in horrific ways. Their loved ones continue to pay the price of the perpetrators actions daily.

Putting a criminal to sleep for killing others is about the nicest thing they deserve. The least we can do for their victims is to send them to hell where they belong

Answer 4

The justice and penal systems are not corporations...if you want to make justice low cost...why have it at all....Studies show that it cost MORE to try and put someone to death because of the appeal system...however studies also show that a person sentenced to life without parole is much more likely to commit a murder in prison...so the only way that you can ensure that these murderers do not commit it again is to enforce a death penalty

Answer 5

Actually, studies have shown that it is cheaper to keep someone locked up for life than it is to execute them. It costs an average of $90,000 per year more for each death row prisoner over a lifer. Financially, it's a huge drain on the economy.

Answer 6

On a purely cost basis, it is cheaper than keeping someone locked up for the rest of their life, feeding, guarding, being nice to them and so on.