USA - Missouri. The Senate has rejected a proposal to study the costs of the state's death penalty

The Missouri Senate has rejected a proposal to study the costs of the state's death penalty. The measure by Democratic Sen. Joe Keaveny, would have required the state auditor to analyze the costs of convicting, housing and executing people sentenced to death for murder. That would have been compared to the costs of cases in which the death sentence was sought but not given, and to murder cases in which the death penalty was never sought. Senators defeated the measure 20-10. The study itself was estimated to cost nearly $170,000 over 2 years. Some opponents said the study seemed designed to show the death penalty is more costly than life prison sentences, but that such a finding wouldn't change their support for the death penalty.