hat capital punishment should be abolished. This is not true at all. The execution of innocent people is very rare because there are many safeguards guaranteeing protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. There is legal assistance provided and an automatic appeal for persons convicted of capital crimes. However, those found guilty and represented by publicly-financed attorneys were incarcerated at a higher rate than those defendants who paid for their own legal representation 88 % compared to 77 % in federal courts and 71 % compared to 54 % in the most populous counties.14 Abolitionists say the cost of execution has become increasingly expensive and that life sentence is more economical. A study of the Texas criminal system estimated the cost of appealing capital murder at $2,316,655. This high cost includes $265,640 for the trial; $294,240 for the state appeals; $113,608 for federal appeals (over six years); and $135,875 for death row housing. In contrast, the cost of housing a prisoner in a Texas maximum-security prison single cell for 40 years is estimated at $750,000. This is a huge amount of taxpayer money but the public looks at it as an investment in safety since these murders will never kill again. In North Carolina it cost taxpayers $329,000 more to convict and execute a murder then it does to house him for 20 years. 15 California spends $600,000 on each prisoner it executes then those it locks up for life. Proponents of the death penalty estimates that the cost of $10-20,000 a year cost to house a 20 year-old who lives 60 years in prison cost taxpayers over $1 million. 16 Proponents argue that these high costs are due to "the lengthy time and the high expense result from innumerable appeals, many over 'technicalities' which have little or nothing to do with the question of guilt or innocence, and do little more than jam up the nation's court system. If these 'frivolous' appeals were eliminated, the pr...
