An Introduction to the Price of Death Penalty Expenses in the United States
The Price of Death
The United States is currently seventeen trillion dollars in debt; California being the main contributor at 778 billion dollars in debt (United States National Debt Clock). Due to overspending, California adds to the amount and the main waste of spending is the death penalty. If California actually carried out executions, the death penalty wouldn’t be such a waste of spending. However in the last thirty-four years, only 13 out of the 758 inmates on death row have been executed (“Death Row Inmates by State and Size of Death Row by Year”). The death penalty uses up too much of the state budget, which can be conserved and used elsewhere. California spends approximately 175,000 dollars per death row inmate per year, which deprives other programs of funding such as education, the fire department, and healthcare (“California’s Death Penalty Too Costly”). The death penalty in California is too costly and should therefore be
abandoned.
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There is no need for the death penalty when there is a more cost efficient and equally effective way to contain criminals. Life without parole (LWOP) could save California taxpayers 117 million dollars each year. Due to the extra trials, legal representation, and extra security for inmates on death row, California spends an additional 184 million dollars for the death penalty (“Death Penalty : The High Cost of the Death Penalty”). As of October 1, 2014 there were 745 inmates on death row, 745 inmates that could be just as effectively be sentenced to life without parole (“Death Row Inmates by State and Size of Death Row by Year”).
Those who get wrongfully convicted eventually get out and sue, which adds to the cost. Compensation ranges from 129 million dollars to 144 million dollars and since 1989 three death row prisoners had their convictions overturned (“Methodology”). According to the former U.S. supreme court justice, Harry A. Blackmun, "The problem is that the inevitability of factual, legal, and moral error gives us a system that we know must wrongly kill some defendants, a system that fails to deliver the fair, consistent, and reliable sentences of death required by the Constitution” ( “Changing Views of Supreme Court Justices”). Eliminating the death penalty and making LWOP the highest form of punishment would be most cost efficient and effective.
Proponents may argue that even though the death penalty is expensive, it is worth it because it protects the innocent. With murderers on death row, justice is served. LWOP just does not fit the crime. David Schaefer, PhD, professor of political science at Holy Cross College states, “There is no guarantee that a sentence of life without parole will actually be followed. Potential killers likely know it too.
Those of us who believe that the punishment should in some sense fit the crime may doubt the prospect of spending two or even more decades behind bars, with the hope of ultimate emancipation... constitutes just retribution for an act of cold-blooded murder and in a society that doubts its right to impose the ultimate penalty on individuals who have committed the most vicious crimes against their fellow citizens, the horror against committing murder will tend inevitably to erode” (“Is Life in Prison a Better Option”). Morally, the death penalty is prefered because other peoples’ lives have been spared. The justice system shouldn’t permit sparing guilty people for the sake of equality because victims have been punished. Therefore, the death penalty is worth the cost and should remain intact.
Death penalty proponents who believe that the death penalty is worth the cost, don’t realize that more innocents are actually harmed than benefited. Law abiding citizens are being deprived of programs such as education departments and health services because the death penalty is too costly. Since its reinstatement, the death penalty has cost over four billion dollars, money that could have been used elsewhere (“The Death Penalty: The High Cost of the Death Penalty”). This enormous cost puts a strain on the state government and the local government as well. Overall, the death penalty is too costly and should be abolished.
By getting rid of the death penalty, not only will it be more cost efficient, but it will also create trust in the people. By making education a priority, people will no longer be restricted of opportunities. The average annual in-state four year college tuition in California was $20,242 for the 2013-2014 academic year, which was a 2.48% increase of the tuition of the year before (“Cost and Affordability for 2014”). Because of this increase more students applied for financial aid, resorted to community colleges, or did not even go to college. I, for example, was unable to go to a university because I was unable to afford it. The money saved from switching to life without parole could make college more affordable, as well as providing opportunities in other California programs.
An Introduction to the Price of Death Penalty Expenses in the United States. (2023, Mar 12). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/an-introduction-to-the-price-of-death-penalty-expenses-in-the-united-states/Cite this Page
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