Discuss the high cost of the death penalty and how life with out paroll would be better - Term Paper Example

akers to replace it with life imprisonment without parole, as it costs less and has more lasting and influential effects on overall societies and communities. Death penalty is actually “an economic drain on governments with already badly depleted budgets” (NYT, 2009). The process of death penalty becomes complicated and costly as soon as the person is convicted and ordered to be executed by the court. An appeal is forwarded as soon as the execution is ordered. And if that appeal is refused on any basis, a series of appeals starts to different courts until the appeal is accepted at district level or federal level, usually depending upon the financial background of the convicted.

In Texas only, one out of every four death penalties is reversed through appeals. In New jersey, a quarter billion dollars have been spent on the death penalties yet not a single person was executed since 1983. The extensive trials, heightened official evaluation and costly appeal procedures of serious offences such as murder not only derails the whole system of justice but also delays it when even the case is very obvious. In fact “the longer death row inmates remain in that legal limbo, the more expensive they become” (Hess, 2011).

McCartin, a former jurist from California, who convicted nine men to death penalty, now opposes this law. Of the nine men he convicted, only one died, that too of a heart attack (msnbc, 2009). The time and money spent on only one convicted person of death penalty can be spent on a number of prisoners of same category if they are convicted to life time imprisonment without parole. Life imprisonment is not only cheaper but it also provides instant justice not only to the criminal but also to the victim’s family.

And the ultimate burden of these trials is put on the tax payers i.e. the common man who struggles hard to earn his livelihood, but has to pay a huge amount in the name of taxes which is spent on these time and money wasting trials. In