Journal 11

Original:

Life in prison is seen as the alternative to the death penalty. It is used for crimes less than murder, such as drug charges or other violent offenses, in addition to murder cases. While it is believed that the death penalty is less expensive than putting someone in prison for life, it is not actually true. The death penalty costs state governments hundreds of millions of dollars more than life imprisonment. For death penalty verdicts, millions extra are spent on an expensive second trial, new witnesses, jury selections, and the actual execution process. Eliminating the 15 to 20 year appeals process would decrease costs, but that increases the chances of innocent people being executed, plus most of the costs of a death penalty case come from the trial and pre-trial. Compared to keeping a criminal in prison for life, putting them on death row is much more expensive.

Revised:

Life imprisonment is seen as the best alternative to the death penalty. People who commit murder or other serious crimes less severe than murder, such as major drug crimes or other violent offenses, can be sentenced to life in prison. Many proponents of the death penalty believe that keeping criminals in jail for life is more expensive than executing them, but the opposite is actually true. A death penalty costs state governments hundreds of millions of dollars more than life imprisonment sentence. For death penalty verdicts, millions extra are spent on an expensive second trial, new witnesses, jury selections, and the actual execution process. In Florida, keeping inmates on death row costs taxpayers $51 million a year more than holding them for life without parole. In California, death row costs taxpayers $114 million a year in addition to the cost of imprisoning criminals for life and each execution that has occurs ends up costing on average about $250 million per case (“High Cost of Death Row”.) Eliminating the 15 to 20 year appeals process would decrease the cost of the death penalty, but that increases the chances of innocent people being wrongfully executed. Also, most of the costs of a death penalty case come from the trial and pre-trial. Even if the costs of capital punishment were able to be reduced greatly, the death penalty would still end up costing millions more than imprisoning someone for life.