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The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

536 Words3 Pages

The complicated legal process and the high costs involved in the pre-trial and trial phase for the death penalty makes it an economically unsound method of punishment. Another issue is the amount of innocent people sentenced to death row, and race as it plays a part in capital punishment. After being put on death row it takes years before the execution is carried through. This means that the government will pay to feed, clothe, and keep a roof over their heads until execution day. Cases that don’t result in the death penalty cost over $700,000 and cases that result with the death penalty cost over one millions dollars. Housing each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in general population. It costs more to execute a prisoner than it does to give them life without parole. …show more content…

That’s over one billion four hundred and eight million dollars! “Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, which amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution.” (Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000). Taxpayers believe that executing a person costs less than them serving a life sentence without parole because they won’t be paying for them to serve a life sentence until death comes to the naturally. However if you’ve taken a look at the actual costs of a single execution compared to the costs of life without parole, there is a huge

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