ll of society is responsible for the death of an innocent person when the state kills in our name. Abolition of the death penalty is the only guaranteed protection against this tragedy. The actual cost of an execution is substantially higher than the cost of imprisoning a person for life. A 1982 in- depth study of death penalty costs in New York placed the cost of executing a prisoner at over $1.8 million. This figure is three times the cost of imprisoning a person for life, and it includes only three stages of the judicial proceedings. It does not include additional court security, and counsel fees, nor does it include the estimated millions of dollars associated with state and federal post- conviction reviews and with the execution itself. California spends an extra $90 million per year on capital punishment. In Florida, each execution costs the state $3.2 million, six times more than incarcerating a prisoner for life. Texas, with the highest execution rate and one of the highest murder rates in the country, spends an estimated $2.3 million per capital case. This is roughly three times the cost of keeping someone in prison for 40 years. The death penalty costs more than life imprisonment and wastes scarce resources, which could be better used for proven anti- crime programs. Opposition to the death penalty does not arise from misplaced sympathy for convicted murderers. On the contrary, murder demonstrates a lack of respect for human life. Executions give society an unmistakable message that human life no longer deserves respect when it is useful to take it and that homicide is legitimate when deemed justified by pragmatic concerns. A decent and humane society does not deliberately kill human beings. But who better to explain this than those who know firsthand of the deep hurt and pain that occur when a loved one is murdered. As one whose husband and mother- in- law have died the victims of murder assassination, I stand firmly and uneq...
