Death Penalty

11 Pages 2630 Words

eds of millions of dollars. California has undergone an economic recession and many social programs have had to be cut, but the state “continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on the death penalty” (Bedau 408). And between 1977 and 1995, 18 years, California has experienced two executions by lethal injection (United States Department of Justice 16). How much longer will the death penalty be enforced before the federal and state governments realize that it is becoming “unmanageably expensive” to fund capital cases (Bedau 409)? Financial resources in the U.S. are becoming more and more limited and sparse, yet state governments continue to uphold death cases at the request of politicians’ “ get tough” proposals. But politicians neglect to recognize the exorbitant amount of money that the death penalty is costing tax payers (Bedau 405). With more death row inmates than any other state, Texas is experiencing the financial burden of the death penalty, about three times the cost of impris...