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The Pros And Cons Of The Death Penalty

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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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In California, the death penalty costs an estimated $499.7 million per year, while life without parole is $11.5 million per year (Report of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice). This extreme cost of the death penalty comes from paying for systems that filter the crimes eligible for capital punishment, systems that run the death penalty, and systems that give the defendants a fair trial (Report of the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice). In Los Angeles, each execution costs an estimated $250 million; however, life imprisonment in Los Angeles has a significantly smaller price tag (Rone). Statistically speaking, if the death penalty were removed, it would save a substantial amount of money for California. This outrageous price tag is exactly why capital punishment should be removed from the legal

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Another reason that people on death row cost so much is because they will wait in prison for years before they are actually put to death. People who are on death row will spend their time in separate buildings specifically for death row inmates(Daniels). Ideally, we would be able to cut the cost of this by allowing death row inmates to stay in traditional prisons and once they are done going through the judicial process they should be put to death right away. There is no need to keep them alive for years after being proven guilty and put on death row. The government has made it so that no one is put to death that should not be and although this is very necessary and should be that way, it is

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“The 1989 execution of Ted Bundy cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $5 million” (Executing Prisoners). The death penalty opens many doors for appealing and often results in delaying the execution and costing the state a lot of money. The death penalty is an expensive process but for some criminals, like Ted Bundy, it is

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1293 Words | 6 Pages

  Just in my state of Tennessee alone the trial average for a death penalty sentence is 48 percent higher than what it is for the typical life sentence trial (Tennessee Treasury Report, 2004).When you look into going to trial to prosecute someone for the death penalty it just gets more expensive year after year.   The fact is that you have to pay more attorneys, more experts to go over the files, and more time is put into making sure that all things are in order (Chammah, 2016).   You are paying multiple attorney's, defenders, judges, clerks, and juries to insure that every detail is covered within

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179 Words | 1 Pages

The costs of capital murder trials are more expensive than other murder trials for many of reasons. Often in murder trials where the death penalty is not being sought, the case never goes to trial and the offender pleads to a lesser degree of murder such as second degree murder or manslaughter. Depending on the location in the country, a prosecutor may be swayed politically or by the victim’s family to agree to life in prison without the possibility of parole. What makes a capital murder trial so expensive is “the high cost of crime scene investigations, pretrial preparations and motions, expert witness investigations, jury selection, and heightened death row security and maintenance costs” (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015, p. 493). The overall

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731 Words | 3 Pages

Most people are mistaken the true cost of capital punishment. With lengthy appeals process and specialized housing and extra security provided on death rows, capital cases are significantly more expensive than noncapital homicide cases. There are dozens of studies in regards to analyzing the financial costs that are corresponded to the capital punishment system. Some of them are funded by private organizations that may or may not take a public stance. However, there are few studies have been conducted and published by government agencies at the State or Federal level.

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877 Words | 4 Pages

People argue that the death penalty is a good way to protect our population from these criminals that have done terrible things. While that may be true, life without parole still protects the population from these criminals as they will be in prison for the rest of their lives. Also, the price of a death penalty case is significantly higher than that of a life without parole case. A life without parole case typically averages at about $740,000 while a death penalty case averages at about $1.26 million. The death penalty also puts innocent lives at risk.

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Richard C. Dieter, former director of the death penalty information center says, “All of the studies conclude that the death penalty system is far more expensive than an alternative system in which the maximum sentence is life in prison.” Dieter and many against the death penalty have a problem with the expense of death penalty when life in prison keeps criminals off the streets and is much cheaper. The latest study showed cases were the death penalty cost over one million dollars as cases without cost over $700,000. This doesn’t seem like a ton of a difference until it comes out of taxpayers pockets. It cost taxpayers approximately $90,000 more each year for an inmate who is on death row.

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A case study was shown that people who get life in prison without parole can cost just as much through the ways of appealing due to the infinite amounts they can appeal to the court and jury and people on Death Row are less likely to appeal as much as people that have a life sentence in jail without parole do. (Edwin H. Sutherland) There is the counter argument that life without parole is cheaper and yes it is at the very beginning but with time and a good lawyer that is involved in every case where there is this punishment involved the price drastically jumps. It goes from at least $100,000 to an

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141 Words | 1 Pages

Morally, Jay Gatsby did not wish to pursue the American dream, he found himself looking for an answer that made him the man he was, the self-made wealth and happiness that he created was all a facade for a hazy future that he expected to come true, which never did. The ideal representation of Gatsby is the pursuit of your dream. Inquiring how he felt throughout the story, Gatsby’s dream was unachievable through the crooked ways he tried to win over Daisy. The front Gatsby put forth of achieving the American Dream was legitimate, however, he did not achieve his true happiness in life. The justification of how Jay pursued the American Dream was not behind his perspective as a bootlegger but his perspective as a man who was deeply in love.

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Although Ashton does not think there will be changes, already two Florida death row inmate’s executions have been delayed because of this ruling. Mark Asay has been convicted of two first-degree murder charges in 1987 and has been an inmate on death row since 1988. Asay’s planned execution date was March 17, 2016. Inmates are costing taxpayers considerable amounts of tax dollars every day. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, the cost of living for a general inmate is $49.49 per day, totaling about $18,064 per year.

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87 Words | 1 Pages

Most people on death row showed signs at an early age of mental disabilities or depression. Losing a deceased loved one or having a poor social life are all things that majority of death row inmates have in common. Drugs are not the leading cause as most would expect it to be. The estimated cost of the death penalty is $130 million dollars a year. Doing a lifetime in prison is way cheaper than doing executions because the tools needed and the people needed to do

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963 Words | 4 Pages

With the cost for each death in a case being roughly about $2 million, the state and taxpayers pay for more experts, attorneys, trials, and series of appeals (Richard). The United States are wasting millions on the death penalty system when the justice system disregards the solution of only distributing life sentences in prison. Life sentences offer a more natural, though torturous fatality as criminals are forced to solitude forever. With this in mind, mistakes are more likely to be considered. Many innocent/mentally ill victims would be saved given the absence of capital punishment.

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1674 Words | 7 Pages

According to Gallup poll, sixty-three percent of Americans don't believe that climate change will seriously affect their way of life (Evans). Among those Americans, one in particular stands out. In 2016, the country voted for a president that does not believe in Climate change. President Donald Trump has been said that climate change is a hoax and has already began actions to stop policies put in place by the Obama administration to regulate Climate change. Although Americans and the public do not believe in climate change, there is physical evidence that explains otherwise.

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Each death penalty case in Texas costs taxpayers about $2.3 million. That is approximately three times the cost of imprisoning somebody in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. That is crazy! The government could actually do something good rather than something flawed and hypocritical. Taxpayers complain about paying taxes.

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