Costly death

Plain old economics is emerging as a persuasive argument in the growing national debate over the death penalty. People may differ over the moral issue of taking a life, the practical issue of whether capital punishment works as a deterrent, and the human issue of whether the friends and relatives of a murder victim will find “closure” in seeing the murderer put to death.

Still another common argument often heard may seem at first to make sense: Why should taxpayers pay lifetime support for a convicted murderer? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to execute the prisoner?

Actually, the reverse is true. A study at Duke University has found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment. In Texas, a death-penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. A study of 44 Florida executions since 1976 found that they cost $51 million a year above and beyond what it would have cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole.

Why do executions cost so much? Investigation and prosecution cost more when the death penalty is sought. The state may have to bear the cost of legal defense of an indigent person. Lengthy appeal procedures may keep a prisoner on death row for many years, requiring special high-security incarceration and sometimes a 24-hour suicide watch. As the day of execution approaches in a high profile case, prison staff, police and even public affairs officers often put in expensive overtime. Such costs can easily mount into the millions of dollars.

Against these costs of execution, lifetime imprisonment is relatively inexpensive. In New York state, for example, the current cost for lifetime imprisonment is $30,484 a year.

So, whatever other arguments you hear about the death penalty, don’t let anyone tell you that it saves money for the taxpayers.