The "Prohibitive" Cost of the Death Penalty

Keep reading if Utah’s firing squad execution last week stirred a sense of “he got what he deserved.”

Consider more details and you might be less appreciative for what state-sanctioned vigilante justice gives back to the taxpayer. And it doesn’t matter if the deed is done by a five-man firing squad like the one that killed Utah’s Ronnie Lee Gardner, or lethal injection.

If the nation’s budget crisis is a concern, that is. If news of more cuts to services like highway repairs irks you. If you are troubled by teachers being laid off because states are fiscally strapped, or police officers not being hired, or trash collectors.

The death penalty is a colossal waste of money in the 35 states that have it, including Missouri and Kansas. Adding to the insult, it is ineffective as a crime deterrent.

A state can pay $1 million more to pursue a capital case compared with pursuing any other sentence, according to a 2009 report by the Death Penalty Information Center.

But because only one death sentence is reached for every three sought, the extra expense is even more questionable.

So what does seeking the death penalty accomplish? Why, revenge, of course. The death penalty satisfies the eye-for-an-eye attitude that can’t be soothed by merely seeking the far less costly sentence of life in prison with no parole.

I oppose the death penalty because murder is wrong. It doesn’t matter if it is done by a criminal, or the state. But increasingly even people who don’t philosophically oppose it, like many in law enforcement, are chiming in too. They’re arguing that the money could be better spent elsewhere if the goal is reducing crime.

A poll last year of 500 randomly selected police chiefs found they ranked the death penalty at the bottom of ways to reduce crime. And many pointedly said they could cut crime drastically if money saved by eliminating it were freed up for police use.

Fiscal realities are even undercutting the common argument that life without parole doesn’t preclude the possibility that a lifer will kill a guard or another inmate. Some argue money saved by closing death rows could be applied toward increased guard training and numbers, thereby reducing the likelihood of prison murders.

Kansas City will be host for such discussions at 2 p.m. Saturday at the annual meeting of Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty at the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Center.

Given all the information on capital punishment’s costs and ineffectiveness as a crime deterrent, revenge is the only reason people remain beholden to the death penalty.

Yet revenge is the least informed, most emotionally reactive rationale of all. And in these times of budget constraints, it’s an even shallower response than ever. -- Mary Sanchez.

Source: KansasCity.com, June 23, 2010