It's the reason why the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty want to abolish the death penalty for good.
How much money our legal system is spending on capital punishment?
A study just released by a retired Chief Judge from New Orleans and a Loyola law professor really delves into the numbers.
They say over the last 15 years, Louisiana has spent more than $200 million on its death penalty system. It has had only 1 execution during that time.
Then, factor in prosecution, defense, court, corrections and everything else that maintains the system. The study says it's costing you, the taxpayers, more than $15 million per year.
The study also says housing someone on death row costs about $58,000 a year. That’s in contrast to the around $7,000 it costs to house someone in a typical prison.
It's the reason why the group Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty want to abolish the death penalty for good.
"I think we need to be focused on pursuing criminal justice solutions that are actually going to cut costs and cut crime,” said Marcus Maldonado with Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty.
"Other states that have abolished the death penalty have saved money by doing so cause there's so much cost in the legal system. You get appeal, after appeal and I think that we have to have that buffer between someone's life and the government taking it from them," he said.
Not all conservatives agree, like Attorney General Jeff Landry.
"I've seen those reports--and really and truly the only place they're fit for is the trash can,” Landry told Eyewitness News in a telephone interview Friday.
He's extremely passionate about keeping the death penalty right where it is.
“I did not know that we placed a dollar amount on life and justice," Landry said. "The same people who write these reports tell us about the extreme amounts of costs and tax dollars for social engineering and programs. Yet they seem not to worry about tax dollars at that point but all of a sudden become fiscal conservatives when there's justice involved."
So what's next? The entire state senate will take an up or down vote on Monday, May 6 on a measure that would end the death penalty in Louisiana.
Source: WWL TV news, Staff, May 4, 2019
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
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