Today, legislators in Nebraska voted to repeal the death
penalty, making them the first conservative state to do so in over 40
years. This marks the end of a long hiatus on the death penalty in
Nebraska, with their most recent execution being in 1997.
There are still 30 states that allow the death penalty, even though many, like Nebraska, haven't executed a criminal in years. New Mexico, which outlawed the death penalty in 2009, hadn't executed anyone since 2001, and the only reason the execution went through is that the criminal said he did not want to appeal anymore, and chose to die. He had been on death row since 1986.
And therein lies the key problem
with the death penalty today. (I for the time being, will lay aside
moral arguments. There are those that believe truly heinous crimes
deserve the ultimate punishment, while your trusty blogger here believes
that the use of the death penalty is a huge overreach of state power,
and the taking of a life should be left only to fate. But as I say often
these days, no one is asking me to run the country.) Some argue that
the death penalty is beneficial, as it saves the state money killing
criminals that they would otherwise have to feed and clothe for the rest
of their lives. But let's look at the real numbers.
The
cost of keeping a person in prison for a year varies by state, and
varies depending on the study. One study revealed that in 2010, the
average cost to house an inmate for a year in prison was $31,000, with
smaller states like Kentucky spending just over $14,000 a year on
prisons, and bigger ones like New York spending over $60,000. However,
according to the US Bureau of Prisons, in 2010 it cost just over $28,000 to house an inmate for a year, and one study in New York City in 2013 stated that the city paid over $167,000 for each inmate in one year.
Sounds
like a lot. But how much does it cost to have a judge, a prosecutor, a
defense attorney, a court reporter, and various other federal employees
try and retry death penalty cases year after year?
One
study found that death penalty cases in Maryland cost taxpayers an
extra 1.9 million to 3 million dollars, on top of what they were already
spending to house prisoners. California, the state with the largest
death row population, found that death penalty cases caused them to
spend 63.3 million dollars extra a year. And a study by Duke found that
the death penalty costs North Carolina taxpayers 11 million a year.
These
aren't one year costs taxpayers have to bear. California's average wait
time between conviction and execution is 25 years. The rest of the
United States has an average wait time of 12 years between conviction an
execution.
11 million dollars over 12 years? Sounds like a very expensive 8th Amendment Violation to me.
Despite the cold hard facts, the truth remains that death is the cruelest punishment a state can levy on a citizen.
And while it may provide comfort to some families of murder victims,
there is a sizeable, and organized coalition of the families of murder
victims who oppose it. This not even to mention the number of wrongful executions and the disputed idea that it is a deterrent to crime.
The death penalty does nothing for public safety, as these murderers are
already locked away without the possibility of parole, and only chips
away at human rights in America. In this blogger's opinion, Nebraska
made the right call, and I can only hope other states will soon follow.Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/us/nebraska-abolishes-death-penalty.html
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-without-death-penalty
http://thelawdictionary.org/article/what-is-the-average-cost-to-house-inmates-in-prison/
http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2012-02-the-high-cost-of-prisons-using-scarce-resources-wise
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/nyregion/citys-annual-cost-per-inmate-is-nearly-168000-study-says.html
http://www.uscourts.gov/file/fdpc2010pdf
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2011/09/22/death-and-taxes-the-real-cost-of-the-death-penalty/
http://news.sanford.duke.edu/news-type/news/2010/death-penalty-costs-nc-taxpayers-11-million-year
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jun/20/california-death-penalty-execution-costs
http://www.mvfhr.org/
