If the Death Penalty doesn’t have a profit motive, and is so obviously barbaric, why do political groups and people in America still rally behind it? Surely there’s more to it than most Americans just being blood thirsty monsters, right?

    • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
      20·
      1 year ago

      Why is the death penalty so expensive?

      • Legal costs: Almost all people who face the death penalty cannot afford their own attorney. The state must assign public defenders or court-appointed lawyers to represent them (the accepted practice is to assign two lawyers), and pay for the costs of the prosecution as well.

      • Pre-trial costs: Capital cases are far more complicated than non-capital cases and take longer to go to trial. Experts will probably be needed on forensic evidence, mental health, and the background and life history of the defendant. County taxpayers pick up the costs of added security and longer pre-trial detention.

      • Jury selection: Because of the need to question jurors thoroughly on their views about the death penalty, jury selection in capital cases is much more time consuming and expensive.

      • Trial: Death-penalty trials can last more than four times longer than non-capital trials, requiring juror and attorney compensation, in addition to court personnel and other related costs.

      • Incarceration: Most death rows involve solitary confinement in a special facility. These require more security and other accommodations as the prisoners are kept for 23 hours a day in their cells.

      • Appeals: To minimize mistakes, every prisoner is entitled to a series of appeals. The costs are borne at taxpayers’ expense. These appeals are essential because some inmates have come within hours of execution before evidence was uncovered proving their innocence.

      • oldGregg@lemm.eeEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Genuinely how would ending the death penalty change those? Those are all costs of the court case, which still has to happen for the same crime. That’s not the cost of the death penalty

        • Comrade_Bones [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
          18·
          1 year ago

          The fact that we spend so much money to ensure no one is unfairly sentenced to the death is not a reason to keep the death penalty. It is cheaper to house an inmate for life than to go through the legal process of charging them with death.

        • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
          13·
          1 year ago

          Yes, but people are granted additional recourse to appeal when they’re sentenced to death, and the total costs end up being more than life in prison.

          This is the part where the bloodthirsty monsters respond, “Well, bullets are cheap, just shoot them.”

          • oldGregg@lemm.eeEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            I don’t see how life in prison is more just than death. Not everyone is a bloodthirty monster for having a different perspective than you.

            So your argument for how the death penalty being more expensive , from what youve told me, is that people facing the death penalty are given MORE legal representation than someone charged of the same crime without the death penalty. That doesn’t give me confidence in your goal.

            • Zuzak [fae/faer, she/her]@hexbear.netEnglish
              13·
              1 year ago

              The death penalty is more expensive, innocent people are executed all the time, and there’s also a heavy racial bias in who is subjected to it.

              You don’t have confidence in my goal? I don’t have confidence in yours.

            • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
              12·
              1 year ago

              Bruv the goal is telling you the plain fact that it costs a dramatically greater amount of money for the state to murder someone than to put them in a cage indefinitely. What is your goal?

              And life in prison isn’t more just. Nothing the American carceral system does is justice. But if you’re alive then at least it gives you time to prove that the cops who fingered you were lying about everything and try to get a new trial. Though even that doesn’t work sometimes thanks to our august and venerable supreme court.

                • MerryChristmas [any]@hexbear.netEnglish
                  4·
                  1 year ago

                  Well see, that’s not exactly what you said. You’ve provided a ton of additional context that changes the way I’m going to approach this conflict. In fact, if your argument is simply that focusing on the financial incentives will just lead to lower quality of care for prisoners, that’s something I’d be willing to consider.

        • SalamanderAEnglish
          4·
          1 year ago

          I thought the same - the list is not self-explanatory, nor does it argue that it is “cheaper”.

          But if you click the link it will take you to a page that explains a bit more:

          Overview

          The death penalty is a moral issue for some and a policy issue for others. However, it is also a government program with related costs and possible benefits. Many people assume that the state saves money by employing the death penalty since an executed person no longer requires confinement, health care, and related expenses. But in the modern application of capital punishment, that assumption has been proven wrong.

          The death penalty is far more expensive than a system utilizing life-without-parole sentences as an alternative punishment. Some of the reasons for the high cost of the death penalty are the longer trials and appeals required when a person’s life is on the line, the need for more lawyers and experts on both sides of the case, and the relative rarity of executions. Most cases in which the death penalty is sought do not end up with the death penalty being imposed. And once a death sentence is imposed, the most likely outcome of the case is that the conviction or death sentence will be overturned in the courts. Most defendants who are sentenced to death essentially end up spending life in prison, but at a highly inflated cost because the death penalty was involved in the process.

          The Issue

          How much the death penalty actually costs and how that compares to a system in which a life sentence is the maximum punishment can only be determined by sophisticated studies, usually at the state level. Many such studies have been conducted and their conclusions are consistent: the death penalty imposes a net cost on the taxpayers compared to life without parole. The question is whether the assumed benefits of the death penalty are worth its costs and whether other systems might provide similar benefits at less cost. The assessments of law enforcement experts are particularly relevant in identifying what expenditures are most effective in reducing crime.

          That page unfortunately does not use references, so they don’t make it super easy to jump to the evidence that they base each statement on. But you can find a few specific cost studies here: https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/costs/summary-of-states-death-penalty, and I’m sure there are many more resources through the site if you are really interested.