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Another failed costly government program

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

This morning, the New York Times came out with an editorial urging states to consider abolishing the death penalty on the ground that it costs too much and depletes already sapped state budgets. It is far from a national trend, but some legislators have begun to have second thoughts about the high cost of death row. Others would do well to consider evidence gathered by the Death Penalty Information Center, a research organization that opposes capital punishment…. According to the organization, keeping inmates on death row in Florida costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole.  North Carolina has put 43 people to death since 1976 at $2.16 million per execution.  The eventual cost to taxpayers in Maryland for pursuing capital cases between 1978 and 1999 is estimated to be $186 million for five executions...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on September 28, 2009 (boomark / email).