I. Because the problem with capital punishment in the U.S. is too costly to the taxpayers, we must plan to abolish it, or we all must pay the price.
II. Capital punishment is placing a heavy burden on state budgets confronted with budget shortfalls and are forced to close schools, reduce police workforce, and health care state assistance for the poor and unemployed.
A. The appeal process for death penalty cases takes over 15 years adding enormous cost to pre-trials and trials (Jost, 2010).
1. It cost states in excess of $1.5 million more to prosecute for each death penalty case as opposed to prosecuting for a life sentence without parole (Barnes, 2010).
2. The burden of the added cost is shared by the entire country in the form of state bailout money (Barnes, 2010).
B. As the results of the added cost to the states, many needed services are being cut or eliminated altogether.
1. Over the next five years, it is estimated that it will cost the state of California over $1 billion on Death Row inmates; meanwhile Governor Brown was forced to drastically reduce the budget for education, health-care, and crime prevention (Clark, 2011).
2. The financially strapped citizens of California paid an additional 10% in 2009 wage taxes to help prop up the state budget shortfall (Goldmacher, & Hennigan, 2009).
III. The solution is to plan for the federal government repeals of the death penalty and convert them to life sentences without parole.
A. Supporters to abolish capital punishment are lobbying state politicians to introduce legislature against it to combat the problem.
1. Politicians, pressured by the pro-death penalty supporters although in favor to abolish it, are inclined to vote against it fearing the loss of reelection votes; furthermore state senators opposed to it are calling for the ban to be put to the voters (Wisneiwski, 2011).
2. Death penalty opponents are tabulating the enormous cost associated with capital punishment in an attempt to change supporters’ point of view (Clark, 2011).
B. The federal government could mandate that any states wishing to continue with capital punishment would lose federal funding effective January 1, 2012, giving the states time to make adjustments.
1. States supporting capital punishment should discontinue all appeals after prisoners are found guilty and deserving the death penalty to save the taxpayer future cost.
2. Supporters to abolish the death penalty should relentlessly lobby their state and federal politicians and create new grass-roots movement to penalize them at reelection time if they do not support cutting federal funding for states adopting capital punishment.
IV. We must stop the death penalty before it takes us all to the financial grave.