Aside from the obvious costs to society and its collective morality, there are major financial considerations associated with bringing the death penalty to those convicted of capital crimes. According to a recent Los Angeles Times study, based on eleven executions spread over 27 years in California, state and federal taxpayers pay $250 million per execution.
Further cost breakdowns have taxpayers paying more than $114 million a year beyond the cost of simply imprisoning the convicts. This figure does not include the millions of dollars in additional court costs for post-conviction hearings in state and federal courts. Approximately $57.5 million annually, or $90,000 more per year goes to housing each inmate on death row rather than in the general prison population.
The California Attorney General is believed to spend another $11 million, or 15% of his annual budget, on death penalty cases. The California Supreme Court spends nearly $12 million on appointed counsel for death row inmates. The federal court system spends over $12 million on defending death row inmates in federal court. The costs associated with the offices of county district attorneys for the prosecution of capital cases is estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars each year. The office of the State Public Defender and the Habeas Corpus Resource Center spend another $22.3 million on defense for indigent defendants facing death.
Of course, there are those who would argue that there is no need for the kind of system – with its lengthy and complex judicial process for capital cases – that is presently set up under the Constitution. But these people would be mistaken. A process like this is necessary to assure that men and women are not executed for crimes they are innocent of. Constitutionally mandated safeguards are required to provide, among other things: