Death Penalty

Study Says the Death Penalty Costs California $184 Million a Year

A new study by Ninth Circuit Judge Arthur Alarcón and Loyola Law School professor Paula M. Mitchell has found that California has spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment since the sentence was reinstated in 1978. That is $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out.  Judge Alarcón and Mitchell also found that the cost incurred by the death penalty is $184 million over what would be spent otherwise in imprisoning offenders without the possibility of parole. This all adds up to big money: the study predicts the tab for the death penalty will have added up to $9 billion by 2030. With California reassessing its priorities in a time of fiscal disarray, the replacement of capital punishment with sentences of life without the possibility of parole would save the state billions that could be redirected towards education, healthcare, and making our communities safer.

More Information:

• Read Los Angeles Times article
• Listen to CBS-San Francisco Podcast
• Study citation: Arthur Alarcon and Paula Mitchell, “Executing the will of the voters?: a roadmap to mend or end the California Legislature’s multi-billion-dollar death penalty debacle,” Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, June 2011.