I'd heard that but couldn't cite the data, so I turned to Claude ai to get a comparison. It was too long to include all of it but here's a bit.
Key Studies & Findings
Kansas found death penalty cases cost 70% more than comparable non-capital cases.
California spent an estimated $137–184 million more per year on capital cases than it would on life sentences.
Duke University researchers estimated the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than life imprisonment.
New Jersey abolished the death penalty in 2007 partly citing the $253 million spent over 23 years with no executions.
The Bottom Line
The additional costs of capital punishment stem overwhelmingly from legal proceedings, not incarceration. Even accounting for decades of housing a lifer, the death penalty consistently comes out 2–3x more expensive when total system costs are measured.
This is why many states have cited fiscal reasons — alongside moral ones — when abolishing capital punishment."
The death penalty denies those falsely accused or with extenuating circumstances – an abused spouse or assisting a terminally ill loved one unable to commit suicide to die, for instance – of the right to life and the hope of one day the truth coming out, setting them free.
Serial killers are dangerous and should never be where they can hurt anyone again. But if there is a way to prevent it at less cost to society, maybe a life sentence without the possibility of parole is the best choice – if others incarcerated with them can be kept safe from them too.
Yet I remember one in the Austin area, Kenneth McDuff, who was sentenced to the death penalty but when the Supreme Court overturned the death penalty was re-sentenced to life in prison. Then he was paroled on good behavior, only to kill again before finally caught.
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