• The California death penalty system costs taxpayers $114 million per year beyond the costs of keeping convicts locked up for life. Taxpayers have paid more than $250 million for each of the state’s executions.
• In Kansas, the costs of capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-capital cases, including the costs of incarceration.
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• In Maryland, an average death penalty case resulting in a death sentence costs approximately $3 million. The eventual costs to Maryland taxpayers for cases pursued 1978-1999 will be $186 million. Five executions have resulted.
• The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of sentencing murderers to life imprisonment. The majority of those costs occur at the trial level. www.ddhw.com
• Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole. Based on the 44 executions Florida had carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution.
• In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.
我开始也很纳闷,觉得不可思议,但是在仔细想想,觉得还是可能的。在美国,一般处决一个死刑犯需要好几年时间,甚至十几年时间。一切的法律手续,设施的使用,相关工作人员的charge等等加起来,我认为还是可能的。我想,其中开销最大的应该是“it costs hundreds of millions to avoid executing one innocent person.”
Financial costs to taxpayers of capital punishment is several times that of keeping someone in prison for life. Most people don't realize that carrying out one death sentence costs 2-5 times more than keeping that same criminal in prison for the rest of his life. How can this be? It has to do with the endless appeals, additional required procedures, and legal wrangling that drag the process out. It's not unusual for a prisoner to be on death row for 15-20 years. Judges, attorneys, court reporters, clerks, and court facilities all require a substantial investment by the taxpayers.
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Capital cases cost more from the start because case law mandates that a defendant facing a possible death sentence is entitled to two attorneys rather than just one. Most capital defendants are indigent which means this cost is absorbed by the state. Capital defendants are entitled also to representation by relevant experts in their cases (investigators, mitigation specialists, psychologists, etc.) all paid for at state expense. Capital trials usually last longer than non capital trials. Additionally, and probably more important with respect to driving costs up, there is the appeals process. This is put into place to try to avoid executing an innocent person, but appellate attorneys cost even more than trial attorneys because of their specific expertise. Finally, the costs of supervision on high security death row while appeals proceed outweighs the costs of supervision in general population.
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The process is intended to minimize the chances of innocent persons being executed. Thus, many apeals are allowed and it drags on for years. 'Death row' also requires more security, since the inmates are often very unpopular with the general population and/or are suicide risks and/or have nothing much to lose if they feel thier apeals aren't going to work. So keeping them imprisoned until thier executed is very expensive. Court isn't cheap, either, so the long series of apeals is very costly.
It's not really that it costs millions to execute one inmate - it's that it costs hundreds of millions to avoid executing one innocent person.
'Jail is just like being on holiday': Killer boasts on Facebook from his prison cell
A convicted killer has boasted on Facebook that being in jail is like being on holiday.
Ashley Graham even put up a picture of himself on the social networking website ‘relaxing’ in his cell.
The 27-year-old is serving life at HMP Lindholme in South Yorkshire for stabbing a man through the heart.
But he manages to access Facebook every day by using a mobile phone that was smuggled in to the jail. www.ddhw.com
The killer's boasts are likely to reignite claims that prisoners enjoy an easy life in Britain's jails. Relaxing: Convicted killer Ashley Graham put this picture of him in jail on Facebook. He claims being in prison is like being on holidaywww.ddhw.com
In one update Graham wrote: ‘HMP Holiday’s a place where men can come for a nice relaxin break from their moanin women and crying kids. No stress just rest.’
Astonishingly his friends on the social networking site agreed.
Graeme Crockett replied: ‘Loving the status. Could do wid a nice relaxing break in HMP Ranby or Sunbury again.’
Graham even got messages from a woman claiming to be his wife.
On January 25, Emma Campbell Graham, wrote: ‘Hi hubbi. Been a while since I put some loving on your wall. Wifee is missing you. Not to long til I am in your arms baby. Love you x.’www.ddhw.com
Graham was jailed after killing Roy Henry in February 2001 when he tried to stop him and an accomplice entering a café to attack another man.
HMP Lindholme has a games room, TV room with DVDs and an activities centre for computer classes.
The Prison Service said measures would be introduced this Spring which would stop prisoners using mobile phones in prisons. www.ddhw.com
A Prison Service spokesperson said: 'Prisoners are not allowed access to mobile phones or the Internet – an investigation is underway and appropriate action is being taken.
'During Spring 2009 Body Orifice Security Scanners ('BOSS chairs') will be introduced estate wide. These will be supported by high sensitivity metal detectors and mobile phone signal detectors.'
Earlier this year certain prisons in London launched a scheme to allow prisoners limited access to websites in order to let them resettle in their community and apply for jobs. www.ddhw.com
The scheme allowed prisoners to visit pre-approved websites to take part in online learning and job hunting.
Prisoners were blocked from browsing beyond a list of approved sites and access to 'uncontrolled email' was stopped.
But security fears marred the scheme's initial launch in 2007 after Home Office ministers raised concerns that the proper safeguards were not in place.
It is not the first time that criminals have been caught using Facebook, which is supposed to be family friendly.www.ddhw.com