Is The Death Penalty Ineffective

Some may be shocked to be informed that capital punishment actually costs more than life in prison; that is without parole. Many would figure that the costs would be less for the death penalty because of the food, place of living for the prisoners, etc., but quite frankly, it costs more for a prisoner to be punished to death rather than to having life in prison (Hyden). Some state’s taxes differ but for the state of California, capital punishment costs taxpayers more than $114 million a year (Bushman). Additionally, the taxpayers of California spend $250 million per execution (Bushman). According to the nonpartisan state legislative analyst’s office, the average cost of imprisoning an inmate was around $47,000 per year in 2008-09. In comparison, the death penalty can lead to an additional $50,000 to 90,000 per year, according to the studies found (Ulloa). In more studies, they have estimated the taxpayers to spend $70 million per year on incarceration, plus $775 million on additional federal legal challenges to convictions, and $925 million on automatic appeals with the initial challenges to death penalty cases

The death penalty is a more expensive than the alternative life without the possibility of parole option in monetary terms, time, and resources spent. It is acknowledged that there is no national figure for the exact cost of the death penalty but many states and researchers do have estimates. All of which concluding that the death penalty is the more expensive than life without parole. This option is gradually becoming more expensive with each passing years due to factors that will be discussed from an article from The Marshall Project. The death penalty is more than the physical execution of the accused, it includes money and time dedicated to having inmates on death row. Death row does automatically imply heightened security and extra expenses. Maurice Chammah in his article “Six Reasons the Death Penalty is Becoming More Expensive” states that, “Felons sentenced to life in prison may eventually be placed in the general population, but death row inmates are virtually always housed in administrative segregation, or solitary confinement…” which can mean double or more the cost than of housing general population inmates (Chammah, 2015). The time inmates can spend on death row varies from months to years with the longest being close to 40 years. People do not realize that majority of the death penalty’s cost is not a part of any budget. Instead, they are buried in thicket of legal proceedings and hours spent by judges, clerks, prosecutors, experts and law enforcement

"…[T]he American people no longer felt that the death penalty was suited to human dignity," they said. Most importantly, however, the attorneys argued that poor people and people of color routinely received the death penalty for capital offenses, at a rate vastly disproportionate to that of whites, particularly affluent whites, accused of similar offenses. This was a clear violation of the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection of the laws,” (Supreme Court Cases: Furman v. Georgia).”

Much of the court's time could be saved if death row inmates were limited to a set number of appeals in a reasonable amount of time. Facilitating numerous appeals results in many unforeseen costs. In 1992, expenditures on criminal justice activities by all federal, state, and local governments combined reached $299 per capita.(BJS) Ted Bundy's 10 year stay on death row, involving numerous appeals and excessive imprisonment fees, eventually cost the Florida state taxpayers more than $6 million dollars.(Lamar 34) These expenses are unnecessary and unjustifiable and could be alleviated by limiting appeals. In addition to this, public defense expenditures reached a startling $16.4 billion in 1990, which breaks down to about $7 per capita for each case tried in public defense costs alone.(Capital Punishment 1992) Although these figures are for total spending on public defense, it is easy to deduce that by limiting the number of appeals for death row inmates, these figures could be significantly reduced.

The Fact sheet found on the Death Penalty Information Center showed that solely in Kansas, there was an average of $400,000 per case for defense costs by inmates placed on death row compared to the average of $100,000 paid per case to defense attorneys when there was no death penalty (DPIC). Alarcon and Mitchell conducted a study in 2011 that showed that just in California getting through the process of having an inmate on death row was over $4,000,000,000 (DPIC). This was due to the various amounts of fees that had to be paid for court trials, appeals, housing death row inmates in preparation for their incarcerations etc. (DPIC) lastly just in the state of Texas, the cost of carrying out a death penalty case, which is $2.3 million is three times as much as housing an inmate in solitary confinement at a maximum-security prison for 4 decades (DPIC). This huge difference in numbers add to how unrighteous it would be to keep the death penalty legal in the U.S.

The injustice that comes from this prosecution isn’t taken as seriously as it should be, with it ruining lives of loved of victims and the victims themselves. A study by Katherine Beckett, details how jurors in Washington State were 3 times more likely to impose the death penalty to a person of color than a white person. Deaths that have included white victims make up 80% of Capital cases, while these victims only make up one half of all murder cases. By 2002, 12 cases of the defendant being white and the murder victim being black have been sent to the death penalty, while 178 cases of the defendant being black have been executed. Discrimination in a court of law that relates to the death penalty correlates directly with the prosecution and defense provided. 94.5% of elected prosecutors that reside in death penalty states are white, even going as far as 100% white in 9 states like Washington and Tennessee. These statistics showcase how the legal system is much more harsher and likely to punish people based on their skin

Unsurprisingly, the death penalty system in the United States is immensely bias, and applied in a way that is unjust for individuals on trial. It is largely dependent on an individual’s social class, race, and the attorney’s skill. (Williams) A study by Professor Kathrine Beckett showed that jurors in Washington are four and a half times more likely to charge a black defendant with the death sentence over a white defendant. (Williams) These chances become enlarged if the victim was white. Moreover, according to the U.S. Appeals Court judge, over 99% of people on death row are impecunious. (Keller) Although people of various incomes commit murder, those who are less wealthy are most preeminent in receiving the death penalty. Arguably, one of the most important aspects on winning a case resulting in death penalty is the efficiency of the lawyer. Most defendants in capital cases cannot afford a lawyer on their own and appointed a lawyer. The attorneys representing them are many times overworked, underpaid, and inexperienced, leaving the defendant with a poor case, and perhaps a great tribute to their death. Overall, Capital Punishment is a broken, predisposed system of unjust

"Costs of the Death Penalty." Death Penalty Information Center. Death Penalty Information Center, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. This article evaluates studies done in states all over the U.S to show much money is spent on capital punishment. For each state, the author provides a small summary, including statistics, and then provides the link to the original article where the information derived from. Thus, giving this article authority, by citing all sources, and also accuracy because of the studied information from each original article. The article doesn’t cover every state, but the states covered are the most relevant to the topic. I will use this information to show how expensive the death penalty is and compare it to the price of prisons, since cost is one of the main questions asked about the death penalty.

Death Penalty has been and still is one of the biggest controversies in the United States and internationally. People have been discussing and debating whether or not the death penalty is effective or not. As opposers would argue, the death penalty deters crime and the criminals deserve it; however, the death penalty is a very costly procedure and time consuming as well as ineffective.

Helen Prejean stated “Who pays the ultimate penalty for crimes? The poor. Who gets the death penalty? The poor. After all the rhetoric that goes on in legislative assemblies, in the end, when the net is cast out, it is the poor who are selected to die in this country. And why do poor people get the death penalty? It has everything to do with the kind of defense they get. Money gets you good defense. That's why you'll never see an O.J. Simpson on death row. As the saying goes: 'Capital punishment means them without the capital get the punishment." (Salt in the Earth, 1997). The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) stated, “Despite the fact that African Americans make up only 13 percent of the nation’s population, almost 50 percent of those currently on the federal death row are African American. And even though only three people have been executed under the federal death

In the courtroom, these stressors come out in full force. Although the Courts have “concluded that statistics alone do not prove that race enter[s] into any capital sentencing decision in any one particular case…” it is obvious that ethnicity becomes a factor (Ross 153). Countering the court’s argument, statistics have shown that in America, “blacks who killed whites were five and six times… more likely to be sentenced to death than whites who killed whites” (151). The reason for this is mainly due to jurors unintentionally letting race influence their decision making process. The in-group bias and ethnic boundaries described above cloud the jury’s judgment, seeking a stronger penalty for minority groups. Also, if the victim who was killed was someone with good

Some of those who support the death penalty base their argument on the fact that it is a cost-effective alternative to life imprisonment. However, it may be more costly to execute an inmate than to have that person serve a life sentence (Amnesty International, 1987). A 1982 study in New York concluded that the average capital murder trial and the first stage of appeals costs U.S. tax-payers 1.8 million dollars (Bohm, 1987). It is estimated that this is less than it would cost to incarcerate someone for one hundred years. Other sources estimate that it can cost up to 2.2 million dollars to obtain and carry out a death sentence (Johnson, 1990). The principal factor in this cost is the appeals process, which lasts an average of ten years and is deemed necessary to reduce the likelihood of the execution of an innocent person.

Capital punishment requires a substantial cost. In fact, the average cost of a death penalty case is around 1.26 million dollars. However, all of the money comes from taxpayers. Another disadvantage is of capital punishment is the cost of time. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, most prisoners on death row have to wait for at least a decade to be executed. In rare cases, some prisoners have been waiting for over 20

People may attempt to argue that the death penalty should remain because it is more cost effective than the alternative of life in prison without parole, however, this is not the case. Many studies have been done in states that still employ the death penalty as a method of punishment. They have all found capital punishment to be significantly more expensive than alternatives, such as life in prison without chance of parole. “In Maryland, a comparison of capital trial costs with and without the death penalty for the years concluded that a death penalty case costs "approximately 42 percent more than a case resulting in a non-death sentence"”(“The Case Against the Death Penalty.”). Another study found that, “On average, Oklahoma capital cases cost 3.2 times more

The system that makes up the Death Penalty proves to be overtly expensive and relies on assumptions, leaving a large margin of error for false convictions. Death Penalty Focus reveals “that a death sentence costs at least 18 times as much as a sentence of life without parole would cost” as the constitution requires there be a complex and long process for capital cases, including mandatory review even after the sentence has been issued, as the death penalty is an irreversible sentence. In relation, the cost of a sentence is extremely high, according to Utah’s Legislative Fiscal Analysis Office, the penalty costs the state $1.6 million more than life without parole per inmate. The costs are attributed to the decades of time spent before and after the case, which is misleading in promising immediate justice to the victims. Instead, the costs of carrying out the sentence should be used on rehabilitating survivors and the victim’s families through counseling, not through a false assumption of what would provide closure, especially considering the