Cheaper to Keep 'Em

In light of recent events there has been a lot of posturing from people who feel the death penalty is in order for a man who killed three people in Colorado Springs. One person commented on a pro life post that he deserved the death penalty. Now let's take this one step at a time. First, irony much? Pro life site, demanding the death penalty? Yikes! Second, he has not been convicted of anything. Third, the reports of what happened have varied so much I'm not sure where the truth lies. Finally, I'm guessing he's not stable, there has to be some level of mental illness because healthy minded people don't use guns to shoot people. Period.

A common argument is that people don't want their tax money to be used to keep a murderer in prison for the rest of their lives. In other words, it's cheaper to kill them. Well, the statistics don't bear that out. HG.org reports that "some estimate that it costs U.S. taxpayers between $50 million and $90 million dollars more per year...to prosecute death penalty cases than life sentences." According to the Death Penalty Information Center "over two-thirds of the states and federal government have installed an exorbitantly expensive system of capital punishment which has been a failure by any measure of effectiveness."  California, for example, has spent an extra $90 million per year on capital punishment, diverting funds from other needed legal services like community policing, leaving many communities vulnerable.

As for acting as a deterrent Texas alone proves that the death penalty does NOT, in fact, deter people from committing murder. Texas has over 300 people on death row and spends an estimated $2.3 million per case and yet it's murder rate remains one of the highest in the country.

According to former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, "It currently costs three times as much -- more than $2 million per inmate -- to carry out the death sentence than to keep an inmate in prison for 40 years. In other word," he goes on to say, "It's cheaper to lock 'em up and throw away the key." Florida, additionally, spent between $25 million and $50 million more per year on capital cases than it would have to if all murderers received life without parole, this according to Columbia Law School study. The study goes on to say that "the Indiana Legislative Services Agency estimated that had the state sentenced its death row populations to life without parole, Indiana taxpayers would ahve been spared approximately $37.1 million. Are you starting to see? Consider that the average salary for a new police officer is about $42,000.00 per year, including benefits.  Divide $2 million by $42,000 and that translates to nearly 48 additional police officers. Police presence is a far better deterrent than the death penalty.

It is not cheaper to kill 'em. It seems a far worse punishment to wake up every morning inside a prison knowing that only death will bring you freedom and the taxpayers are not going to help set you free.