The US can't afford the Death Penalty, says new report.

A report just released by the Death Penalty Information Center concludes that states are wasting hundreds of millions of dollars on the death penalty, draining state budgets during the economic crisis and diverting funds from more effective anti-violence programs.

Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, 41 of the 50 states have had either no executions or an average of less than 1 execution per year. Of the remaining 9 states, only 5 have averaged more than 2 executions per year and only 1 (Texas) averaged more than 3.

Meanwhile, the extra costs of the death penalty, beyond life sentences, are found to be often $10 million per year per state or more.
California, for example, spends $137 million per year on the death penalty and has not had an execution in almost four years, whilst releasing other inmates early to address overcrowding and budget shortfalls.

In Florida, where the courts have lost 10 percent of their funding, the state spends $51 million dollars per year on the death penalty or $24 million for each execution.

Executions themselves are not expensive; it is the pursuit of the death penalty that carries a high price tag. The higher costs of the death penalty process -- including the costs of higher security on death row -- are unavoidable and likely to increase in light of all the mistakes that have been made in capital cases.

"It is doubtful in today's economic climate that any legislature would introduce the death penalty if faced with the reality that each execution would cost taxpayers 25 million dollars, or that the state might spend more than 100 million dollars over several years and produce few or no executions," argued Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty
Information Center and the report's author.“With many states spending millions to retain the death penalty, while seldom or never carrying out an execution, the death penalty is turning into a very expensive form of life without parole. At a time of budget shortf alls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from reevaluation alongside other wasteful
government programs that no longer make sense,”

Furthermore, an article in the Wall Street Journal noted that in states where counties are chiefly responsible for prosecuting capital cases, the expenses can put an extraordinary burden on local budgets comparable to that caused by a natural disaster. Katherine Baicker of Dartmouth concluded that capital cases have a “large negative shock” on county budgets, often requiring an increase in taxes. She estimated the extra expenses for counties to be $1.6 billion over a 15-year period.

Last, the reports include a nationwide poll of police chiefs conducted by RT Strategie. The poll found that police chiefs in the US ranked the death penalty last among their priorities for crime-fighting, do not believe the death penalty deters murder, and rate it as the least efficient use of limited taxpayer dollars. Specifically, only 1% of police chiefs listed the death penalty as the best way to reduce violence. They also ranked it as the least efficient way to use tax payer's money. 57% agreed that the death penalty does little to prevent viokent crimes

“The death penalty is a colossal waste of money that would be better spent putting more cops on the street. New Jersey threw away $250 million on the death penalty over 25 years with nothing to show for it. The death penalty isn't a deterrent whatsoever. New Jersey's murder rate has dropped since the state got rid of the death penalty. If other states abolished the death penalty, law enforcement wouldn’t miss it and the cost savings could be used on more effective crime-fighting programs,” said Police Chief James Abbott of West Orange, New Jersey. Abbott, a Republican, has served 29 years on the police force and was a member of the state commission that recommended the death penalty be
abolished.

Despite all the, 64% of Americans continue to favor the death penalty.