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    Cost

    Cost Resources

    Death Penalty Info Center: Cost

    Amnesty International: Death Penalty Cost

    New York Times editorial

    ”Every dollar we spend on a capital case is a dollar we can't spend anywhere else... We have to let the public know what it costs [to pursue a capital case.]”

            --John M. Bailey, Chief State's Attorney,
                Connecticut

    ”There is simply no place for such an enormously expensive government program that accomplishes nothing. And on that criterion alone, the death penalty ought to die."

            --Jim Oppedahl, former Montana court
                administrator, Helena Independent
                Record, Feb. 2, 2009.
    The death penalty costs significantly more than permanent imprisonment.

    The most comprehensive study yet conducted on the cost of capital punishment found that the death penalty costs     North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than the a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment.
    [Death Penalty Info Center]
    Georgia Facts on Cost

    There has never been a complete study of the cost of Georgia's death penalty.  However, the recent case of Brian Nichols illustrates the huge drain capital punishment places on the state's resources.  According to this report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the trial phase alone cost over $3 million. 

    But why does pursuing the death penalty cost more than life imprisonment? 

    The data from Maryland in the graph below helps explain the increased cost of pursuing a death sentence.  Trials cost more when the stakes are higher because of more careful jury selection and more experts and investigators.  The trial is followed by a lengthy penalty phase, state appeals, and federal appeals, all of which incur more costs.  Finally, the costs of maintaining a death row and execution chamber     makes housing death row inmates more expensive than those sentenced to life without parole.





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