USA - Doing away with capital punishment can potentially save states in the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to a new DPIC study

Doing away with capital punishment can potentially save states in the U.S. hundreds of millions of dollars annually, according to a new study released today. The study found that the costs of executions, even those which are not carried out, significantly deplete state budgets and take funding away from more imperative program needs. Richard Dieter, author of the study and director of the Death Penalty Information Center, is quoted by AFP as stating of the issue, "It is doubtful in today's economic climate that any legislature would introduce the death penalty if faced with the reality that each execution would cost taxpayers 25 million dollars, or that the state might spend more than 100 million dollars over several years and produce few or no executions." Dieter is further quoted as stating of the issue, "Further down the road, only 1 in 10 of the death sentences handed down may result in an execution. Hence, the cost to the state to reach that one execution is 30 million dollars… There is no reason the death penalty should be immune from reconsideration, along with other wasteful, expensive programs that no longer make sense." The number of death sentences handed down in the United States has dropped from roughly 300 a year in the 1990s to 115 a year more recently. Executions are falling off at the same rate, the report says. In the meantime, some 3,300 inmates remain on death row. "The death penalty is turning into a very expensive form of life without parole," said Richard Dieter. A 2008 study in California found that the state was spending $137 million a year on capital cases. A comparable system that instead sentenced the same offenders to life without parole would cost $11.5 million, says the DPIC report, citing the study's estimates. New York spent $170 million over nine years on capital cases before repealing the death penalty. No executions were carried out there. New Jersey spent $253 million over 25 years with no executions. That state also repealed capital punishment. Some officials may be tempted to try to cut capital-punishment costs, notes the DPIC report, but many of those costs reflect Supreme Court-mandated protections at the trial and appeals-court levels. "The choice today is between a very expensive death penalty and one that risks falling below constitutional standards," the report says. Bills calling for an end to capital punishment have been introduced in 11 state legislatures this year. Also this year, New Mexico abolished the death penalty, and Maryland narrowed its use. The Connecticut governor vetoed a law that would have ended capital punishment. The DPIC report includes the results of a recent poll of 500 police chiefs nationwide. 57 % of the chiefs polled said they agreed with the statement that the death penalty does little to prevent violent crimes because perpetrators rarely consider the consequences when engaged in violence. They suggest more efficient use of resources - such as boosting funding for drug and alcohol abuse programs.