What is the approximate cost of the death penalty?
Excellent question! According to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, the death penalty in CA costs between 130-230 million dollars a year, compared to about 12 million for their lifetime incarceration program. Why does it cost so much? Let’s look at executions in three stages: 1. Pre-trial: 2 defense attorneys vs. 1 (in non-death cases), additional motions filed for both trial and sentencing, change of venue more likely, sequestering jury more likely, and more extensive investigations on both sides, including for mitigating evidence for penalty phase. 2. Trial: Individual questioning of jurors re: death penalty views, 2-part trial (guilt and sentencing), cases are much more likely to go to trial and will be much longer than non-capital trials, and sentencing involves witnesses, experts, and are usually determined by a jury. 3. Post Trial: There are 3 levels of review vs. 1 level for non-capital cases, more likely for appeal due to multiple issues, sentence
I also tried to find the cost of the death penalty around America and came to the conclusion that Americans just throw all their money into the big prison pot and don’t really know exactly where it goes. I got estimates from $3 million to $250 million dollars per execution. Most estimates were from the late 80’s so may have gone up a bit. If memory serves me correctly the $250 million dollars per execution estimate was a state that only executed one man in two years, so that is why that one was so high.
