Aside from the obvious costs to society and its collective morality, there are major financial considerations associated with bringing the death penalty to those convicted of capital crimes. According to a recent Los Angeles Times study, based on eleven executions spread over 27 years in California, state and federal taxpayers pay $250 million per execution.
Further cost breakdowns have taxpayers paying more than $114 million a year beyond the cost of simply imprisoning the convicts. This figure does not include the millions of dollars in additional court costs for post-conviction hearings in state and federal courts. Approximately $57.5 million annually, or $90,000 more per year goes to housing each inmate on death row rather than in the general prison population.
The California Attorney General is believed to spend another $11 million, or 15% of his annual budget, on death penalty cases. The California Supreme Court spends nearly $12 million on appointed counsel for death row inmates. The federal court system spends over $12 million on defending death row inmates in federal court. The costs associated with the offices of county district attorneys for the...
To view and download this full PLR article, you must be logged in. Registration is completely free. Once you create your account, you will be able to browse, search & downlod from our PLR articles database of over "1,57,897+" on 1,000's of niches and 200+ categories without paying a penny. Click here to signup...
