Key Points


The California death penalty system costs taxpayers more than $114 million a year beyond the cost of simply keeping the convicts locked up for life. (This figure does not take into account additional court costs for post-conviction hearings in state and federal courts, estimated to exceed several million dollars.)


With 11 executions spread over 27 years, on a per execution basis, California and federal taxpayers have paid more than $250 million for each execution.


It costs approximately $90,000 more a year to house an inmate on death row, than in the general prison population or $57.5 million annually.


The Attorney General devotes about 15% of his budget, or $11 million annually to death penalty cases.


The California Supreme Court spends $11.8 million on appointed counsel for death row inmates.


The Office of the State Public Defender and the Habeas Corpus Resource Center spend a total of $22.3 million on defense for indigent defendants facing death.


The federal court system spends approximately $12 million on defending death row inmates in federal court.


No figures were given for the amount spent by the offices of County District Attorneys on the prosecution of capital cases, however these expenses are presumed to be in the tens of millions of dollars each year.



Source:
Tempest, Rone, "Death Row Often Means a Long Life", Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2005

http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/acc ... r+executed