Death penalty costs states millions

2009-10-22 02:38:04 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Law, News)

A new study suggests doing away with the death penalty can cut state costs by hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

A new study suggests putting an end to the death penalty in the U.S. could cut budget costs by hundreds of millions of dollars every year.

Washington (WiredPRNews.com) – Doing away with capital punishment can potentially save states in the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to a new study released Tuesday. As reported by AFP, the study found that the costs of executions, even those which are not carried out, significantly deplete state budgets and take funding away from more imperative program needs.

Richard Dieter, author of the study and director of the Death Penalty Information Center, is quoted by AFP as stating of the issue, “It is doubtful in today’s economic climate that any legislature would introduce the death penalty if faced with the reality that each execution would cost taxpayers 25 million dollars, or that the state might spend more than 100 million dollars over several years and produce few or no executions.”

Dieter is further quoted as stating of the issue, “Further down the road, only one in ten of the death sentences handed down may result in an execution. Hence, the cost to the state to reach that one execution is 30 million dollars… There is no reason the death penalty should be immune from reconsideration, along with other wasteful, expensive programs that no longer make sense.”

As noted in the report, a recent poll suggests that 65 percent of people in the U.S. remain in favor of capital punishment.

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