Study: Expensives Mount In Death Penalty States

The death penalty process is a waste of taxpayer dollers for states that implement it inefficiently, according to a recent study.

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — The death penalty process is a waste of taxpayer dollers for states that implement it inefficiently, according to a recent study.

“At a time of budget shortfalls nationwide, the death penalty is turning into an expensive form of life without parole,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

The Center’s commissoned report found that the number of death row inmates has remained relatively level for the past three decades.

But states with the death penalty are incurring costs on average $10 million more per year than states with life sentences.

The study found increased costs in higher security and guaranteed access to long pardon and appellate process.

The Center also commissioned the study which polled 500 police chiefs across the country to gauge their views about the death penalties effectiveness in reducing violent crime.

The results? The hiring more police officers ranked number one in reducing such crime, while the death penalty was ranked last.

However, death penalty supporters have found that state prosecutors with the death penalty are more likely to receive plea bargains, which reduce costs from trials and incarceration.

That study was performed by the California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation using U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics data from 33 urban counties.