Which costs more - life imprisonment or the death penalty?

Question

I've seen people say that the death penalty saves money on clothing and feeding criminals their whole lives.
Other people have claimed that the capital punishment costs more money than life imprisonment.

Which do you think is true?




After answering, please read the following link:

http://www.mindspring.com/~phporter/econ.html

Answer 1

It is OLD news that keeping, defending and appealing a person with a death penalty conviction is much more expense than keeping, appealing and defending one with a life sentence.

The state will have it's revenge, though. Doesn't matter that it is state-sanctioned murder, that it isn't a deterent, that it accomplishes nothing but another dead body.

Answer 2

Because of the extra effort in prosecuting the case and the cost of endless appeals the death penalty usually ends up costing more that a life (without parole) sentence. It can take 8, 10, 15 years or more before the death sentence is carried out.

Answer 3

I would presume that it costs more to execute someone, simply because the government must deal with all the legal fees involved in the appeals process. Despite that, there is something in me - perhaps not my best self, but there nonetheless - that says that there are SOME people who give up the right to continue to live when they commit something truly heinous. I'm not even saying that this is true of everyone who commits murder; I suppose I'm saying it of people who murder and simply don't CARE what they've done. To me, that is a sociopath, and to have such a person in a prison (even if he is in prison for life, with no possibility of parole) means that he can potentially influence those who may get out and cause more problems. Prisons are a culture, like it or not - not a good one, but any time you get more than two people together, they will form SOME kind of culture. To have a sociopath influencing people who may rejoin the larger culture in the future is a bad idea, in my opnion, and such people should be put to death.

The decision as to which murderers this should be is what we have judges and juries for, and I believe in allowing them to serve in that capacity.

Answer 4

I would have thought that the death penalty would be cheaper since after the lawyer and court fees, there is very little left to do, while with life imprisonment, the prisoner has to be kept alive for a very long time as you say by feeding and clothing them.

Answer 5

Capital punishment costs more, and should...

If the rationale ever prevails that it is cheaper to kill than to imprison, we have escaped from civilization into barbarity.

Taking a page from the Right-to-Life movement, a spirit once imparted should never be subject to mere economics.

Life imprisonment is an act of humility by the State before God, the difference between the infallibility of human judgment and the divine.

Answer 6

Death penalty cost more in legal fees, but that's just a built-in fee so that leeches, oops, I mean lawyers can make money off of others' misfortunes.

Answer 7

It only takes one bullet...