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Death Penalty |
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The use of the death penalty in the United States
has been a great debate for many years. One of the major aspects of this debate
is whether or not we should continue to use this form of punishment for
criminals. In my opinion, the death penalty should be abolished because it
costs taxpayers much more than sending an inmate to prison and there is no
factual evidence that it has any greater deterrent effect than life
imprisonment.
One major reason that I believe that the death penalty should be abolished is
because the expenses of the death penalty greatly exceed those of life
imprisonment. “Maintaining a system of Capital Punishment is far more expensive
than sending murderers to prison until they die of natural causes. No
systematic study has reached a contrary conclusion”(Costanzo 62). When various
states conducted research on reinstating the death penalty, it was found that
the cost would be enormous. A study in New York showed that the cost would be
$118 million dollars each year to restore the death penalty within the state.
Another study conducted in Kansas illustrated that the cost of the death
penalty would be $11.4 million for the first year of reinstatement, and that
the expenses would only rise each year as more prisoners were placed on death
row (Quoted in Hanks 125). When compared to the cost of life imprisonment,
these figures are astronomical. “A life sentence in prison without parole is
estimated to range from $750,000 to $1.1 million per prisoner” (Costanzo 60).
According to these statistics, you could keep almost 118 prisoners in prison
for life in New York with the same amount of money that is spent on the death
penalty in just one year.
Concrete evidence also exists within other states that show that capital
punishment in these states costs taxpayers much more than keeping inmates in
prison for life. “In his dissenting opinion in Furman vs. Georgia, Justice
Thurgood Marshall wrote, ‘When all is said and done, there can be no doubt that
it costs more to execute a man than to keep him in prison for life’ ” (Grossman
60). According to Costanzo, the author of Just Revenge, it is estimated that in
Texas, the expense of life imprisonment in a maximum-security cell for forty
years costs three times less than the $2.3 million average spent on each
capital case (Costanzo 61). Costanzo goes on to state that the estimate for
eliminating the death penalty in California would save taxpayers in “The Golden
State” $90 million dollars every year. He further states that California spent
over $1 billion dollars on the death penalty between 1977 and 1996, although
only 5 men were executed (Costanzo 61).
A group of students at the University of Texas state that it is more beneficial
to our economy to use the death penalty. One student states that in 1992 there
were 883, 593 prisoners in all state and federal prisons. She goes on to state,
“The 883, 593 prisoners are costing the American taxpayers approximately $19.4
billion plus another $61.7 million for the construction of the 1,143 spaces
needed” (Economical). These figures mean that the average cost of each prisoner
is around $22,000 per year. However, the student fails to state the average
cost for just 1 prisoner to be executed. When looking at this number compared
to the figures found in the studies in Texas and California, the cost of the
death penalty is almost 8 times greater. I think I, as a taxpayer, would rather
have to help compensate for the $22,000 a year for the average prisoner serving
life imprisonment than the $2.3 million spent on the average capital case. The
student fails to give the readers the needed information to make a logical and
educated conclusion on the subject.
Another major reason that I feel that the death penalty should be abolished is
the fact that there is not any conclusive evidence that portrays the death
penalty as being a deterrent to crime.