Is the Death Penalty Cheaper Than Life Imprisonment?

Abstract Disagreements about the death penalty usually turn on issues of fairness, morality, and effectiveness. Although a purely economic analysis might be considered vulgar or irrelevant to discussion of a life-or-death issue, assertions about financial cost often emerge in debates about the value of the death penalty. Proponents of capital punishment sometimes claim that killing murderers saves money.

Some Americans support capital punishment because they believe it is cheaper to execute a condemned prisoner than to imprison that person for the remainder of his or her natural life. However, the US system of capital punishment is shaped by concerns about fairness, consistency, morality, and the possibility of wrongful conviction. The appeals process is a long and costly one, and as a result, the death penalty is no longer swift or cheap.