Grim reapings: how the cost of US capital punishment adds up

Capital punishment in the US costs, on average, $1.9m more per case than life without parole. The price of sentencing one person to death could instead be spent on: • A year's salary for 52 police officers in New Orleans - the city with the highest murder rate in the US. • Two new fire trucks in Texas, where Rick Perry cut the budget used to fight wild fires and asked for federal money instead. • A refund for 6,333 City University of New York students of their $300 fee hike imposed after cuts in state and city funding. • Paying to rehire 46 teachers laid off in Detroit during the latest budget crisis and mass redundancies. • Buying health insurance for 1,400 uninsured American families. California has the most expensive death penalty system of any state in the US. With 721 people on death row but only 13 executions since 1978, the state has spent $4bn more than it would have if the punishment were not available there. In cash-strapped Caliornia that would pay for: • The $3.6bn education cuts in the 2011-12 state budget, with millions to spare. • More than 1,700 extra crime investigators, over a 30-year career, in a state where 46% of homicides go unsolved. • The cost of community mental health services cut from the state budget - for the next 4.7 years. • Half the cost of a new high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.