An edi­to­r­i­al in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette stat­ed that the death penal­ty is more expen­sive than life with­out parole and offers Indiana res­i­dents no mea­sur­able ben­e­fit for their tax dol­lars. The paper said that end­ing the death penal­ty and real­lo­cat­ing funds cur­rent­ly put toward cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment would improve pro­grams such as vic­tim’s assis­tance, grass­roots police pro­grams, and social ser­vice agen­cies that work with at-risk youth. The Journal Gazette edi­to­r­i­al not­ed:

The death penal­ty is not sole­ly an issue of moral­i­ty and jus­tice. The state and coun­ties face costs, which tax­pay­ers finance. From the mur­der tri­al through exe­cu­tion, the death penal­ty is expen­sive. In fact, it costs tax­pay­ers more to exe­cute some­one than it costs to incar­cer­ate the same per­son for life with­out parole.

State leg­is­la­tors know this because the Legislative Service Agency issued fis­cal-impact state­ments ear­li­er this year for two death-penal­ty-relat­ed bills filed in the General Assembly. As the state is prepar­ing to exe­cute three men in the next two months, includ­ing for­mer Allen County res­i­dent Joseph Corcoran, Hoosiers ought to ask: If it’s less expen­sive to lock a mur­der­er away for life, why is the death penal­ty an accept­able option?

…

Let’s face it: The state doesn’t get much out of exe­cu­tions. The deter­rence argu­ment is dubi­ous, as is the notion that it’s bet­ter for the public’s safe­ty.

As for costs, the state and coun­ties spend on aver­age $741,000 over 16 years to exe­cute a 30-year-old offend­er sen­tenced to mur­der, accord­ing to the Legislative Service Bureau. The fig­ure includes jail costs, prosecutor’s and defender’s fees from mur­der tri­al through appeals, and exe­cu­tion costs.

It costs states and coun­ties $622,000 to lock the same per­son up for life, esti­mat­ed to be 47 years in prison. That includes appeals, which aren’t auto­mat­i­cal­ly trig­gered as they are in death penal­ty cas­es, as well as health care costs. It costs $506,000 to imprison some­one sen­tenced to 65 years with a 50 % reduc­tion for good behav­ior.

The mon­ey saved could be redis­trib­uted to the juve­nile jus­tice sys­tem, victim’s assis­tance, offend­er re-entry schemes, grass­roots police pro­grams and social ser­vice agen­cies that work with at-risk youth.

The mon­ey and resources saved by end­ing the death penal­ty would have a more pro­found effect to the greater good of Indiana than exe­cut­ing mur­der­ers.

Other than pol­i­tics, why is the death penal­ty immune to Indiana’s bud­getary woes?

(Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, June 22, 2005) See Costs, Life Without Parole, and Editorials.

Citation Guide