Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Originally posted by: FallenHero
Originally posted by: EagleKeeper
Originally posted by: CheapArse
The time spent in jail costs way less than the execution itself.
Please back this up.
It costs around $45-50K per year per inmate.
The problem is that the courts are clogged with multiple appeal issues and there are mulitple courts that an appeal can proceed through.
Each appeal can take 1-2 years to be heard and processed. Usually only one appeal is ever filed at a time. Plus there are at least 3 level of courts both at the state and federal level.
Therefore a single appeal could live for 6-8 years depending on the issues and the speed/attitude of the court that it is heard by.
What do you mean please "back that up?" Its a well known fact that putting someone to death costs more than keeping them in jail for life.
The cost is not the inmate in jail. It is the cost of the multiple trials and procedures before they are actually executed.
Due to the fact that there is a death sentence handed down, the system is deliberately clogged up with appeals and high costs that are initiated by the defense.
Those extremes are not initiated by non-death penalty cases.
Most inmates are supported by the public defender which causes the taxpayer to pay both for the cost of prosecuting and defending the case.
The defense brings in all sorts of expensive experts/consultants (cost is no object) and authorizes major evaluations/studies.
The state then has to generate a rebutal which adds the same cost again.
Link
There are a large number of factors which come together to create the exceptionally high costs associated with the death penalty. First of all, both procedural and substantive constitutional safeguards put in place by the Supreme Court in death penalty cases drive up trial costs and the cost of appeals. As a result there is limited plea bargaining in death penalty cases (a factor which keeps down costs in all other prosecutions); there are lengthy pretrial motions; extensive investigations; increased use of expert witnesses; extensive voir dire; preemptory challenges; and extensive trial and appeal processes. Virtually none of these requirements are subject to reform or state recourse because they were necessitated by Supreme Court guidelines for the death penalty. In addition, almost every capital defendant in America is poor and taxpayers must invariably pay defense costs.
