IT MAY BE too soon to call it a trend, but 2 states have abolished the death penalty in the past three years, and 10 others have legislation pending. States and voters are reconsidering capital punishment, and many have a new reason: money.
Cost was one of the factors New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson cited when he signed repeal legislation last month. Richardson, a former supporter of capital punishment, said he had traveled "a long personal journey on the issue." But polls show New Mexico voters broadly supported the repeal, which replaces the death penalty with life in prison without parole. New Jersey abolished its death penalty in 2007.
Even more striking was the recent vote in the New Hampshire House to end capital punishment there, since it came shortly after the state handed down its 1st death sentence in 50 years. But Governor John Lynch has said he will veto any repeal.
A recent study by the Urban Institute found that an average death penalty trial costs a state about $2 million more than a murder trial where no death penalty is sought. The Death Penalty Information Center estimates that keeping an inmate on death row costs $90,000 a year in extra security. Almost every state is facing a deficit, and getting smart about corrections budgets is an unexpected side benefit.
Abolitionists will take whatever argument they can, but money isn't the only, or the best, reason to stop executions. The death penalty is not a deterrent to most deadly crimes. It is applied unevenly. It places the United States among the world's most brutal regimes. And there are 130 other reasons: the 130 death-row inmates who were exonerated by new evidence. Their deaths would have carried an awful price tag.
Source: Editorial, Boston Globe, April 15, 2009
Cost was one of the factors New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson cited when he signed repeal legislation last month. Richardson, a former supporter of capital punishment, said he had traveled "a long personal journey on the issue." But polls show New Mexico voters broadly supported the repeal, which replaces the death penalty with life in prison without parole. New Jersey abolished its death penalty in 2007.
Even more striking was the recent vote in the New Hampshire House to end capital punishment there, since it came shortly after the state handed down its 1st death sentence in 50 years. But Governor John Lynch has said he will veto any repeal.
A recent study by the Urban Institute found that an average death penalty trial costs a state about $2 million more than a murder trial where no death penalty is sought. The Death Penalty Information Center estimates that keeping an inmate on death row costs $90,000 a year in extra security. Almost every state is facing a deficit, and getting smart about corrections budgets is an unexpected side benefit.
Abolitionists will take whatever argument they can, but money isn't the only, or the best, reason to stop executions. The death penalty is not a deterrent to most deadly crimes. It is applied unevenly. It places the United States among the world's most brutal regimes. And there are 130 other reasons: the 130 death-row inmates who were exonerated by new evidence. Their deaths would have carried an awful price tag.
Source: Editorial, Boston Globe, April 15, 2009
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