e the death penalty is not sought.The following schedule is a summary of Erickson's cost study of a death penalty trial inLos Angeles County only. (deathpenalty.org)If the cost of incarceration on death row and the cost for the mandated appeal to the State Supreme Court were added to the above capital trial expenses, the cost would increase to an estimated 2.5 to 3 million dollars per execution. If the cost of incarceration of an inmate sentenced to life imprisonment without parole were added to the above non- 6capital trial expenses, which is less expensive than confinement of an individual on death row, the cost of life in prison without parole would increase to an estimated 1 to 1.5 million dollars. Prisoners are executed in the United States by any one of five methods; in a few jurisdictions the prisoner is allowed to choose which one he or she prefers. These are the methods of capital punishment in use in mid-1997.The traditional mode of execution, hanging, is an option still available in Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington. Death on the gallows is easily bungled: If the drop is too short, there will be a slow and agonizing death by strangulation. If the drop is too long, the head will be torn off.Two states, Idaho and Utah, still authorize the firing squad. The prisoner is strapped into a chair and hooded. A target is pinned to the chest. Five marksmen, one with blanks, take aim and fire.Throughout the twentieth century, electrocution, has been the most widely used form of execution in this country, and is still utilized in eleven states. The condemned prisoner is led – or dragged – into the death chamber, strapped into the chair, and electrodes are fastened to head and legs. When the switch is thrown the body strains,jolting as the voltage is raised and lowered. Often smoke rises from the head. There is the awful odor of burning flesh. No one knows how long electrocuted individuals retain consciousness. 7In 1983, t...
