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Death Penalty

 

There also appears to be no question that, over time, equivalent life without parole cases are much more expensive - from $1.2 to $3.6 million - than death penalty cases. Opponents ludicrously claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more than life without parole. The $34,200 is conservative, if TIME Magazine's (2/7/94) research is accurate. TIME found that, nationwide, the average cell cost is $24,000/yr. and the maximum-security cell cost is $75,000/yr (as of 12/95). Opponents claim that life without parole should replace the death penalty. Therefore, any cost calculations should be based specifically on cell costs for criminals who have committed the exact same category of offense - in other words, cost comparisons are valid only if you compare the costs of life without parole cases to the cost of death penalty cases. The $34,200/yr. cell cost assumes that only 20% of the death penalty-equivalent life without parole cases would be in maximum security cost cells and that 80% of the death penalty-equivalent life without parole cases would be in average cost cells "a very conservative estimate. The $60,000/yr., for those on death row, assumes that such cells will average a cost equal to 80% of the $75,000/yr. for the most expensive maximum-security cells "a very high estimate. Even though we are calculating a 75% greater cell cost for the death penalty than for equivalent life without parole cases, equivalent life without parole cases appear to be significantly more expensive, over time, than their death penalty counterparts. For years, opponents have improperly compared the cost of all life without parole cases to death penalty cases, when only the death penalty equivalent life without parole cases are relevant. .
             Another argument of Opponents of the death penalty is the execution of innocent men or women. The most significant study conducted to evaluate the evidence of the "innocent executed" is the Bedau-Radelet Study (Miscarriages of Justice in Potentially Capital Cases, 40, 1 Stanford Law Review, 11/87).


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