I have seen various cost statistics from any where between $1.1 Million to $1.6 million more expensive to keep ONE Death Row inmate alive versus has that inmate simply be given life. It is very difficult to get exact numbers because everywhere you look, everyone's is different.
Here is some information on California for example;
California
Assessment of Costs by Judge Arthur Alarcon and Prof. Paula Mitchell (2011, updated 2012)
The authors concluded that the cost of the death penalty in California has totaled over $4 billion since 1978:
$1.94 billion--Pre-Trial and Trial Costs
$925 million--Automatic Appeals and State Habeas Corpus Petitions
$775 million--Federal Habeas Corpus Appeals
$1 billion--Costs of Incarceration
The authors calculated that, if the Governor commuted the sentences of those remaining on death row to life without parole, it would result in an immediate savings of $170 million per year, with a savings of $5 billion over the next 20 years.
This a really good site to view DP info. This is the same site I pulled the graphs from that I posted on the thread.
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/cost...financialfacts
And California hasn't executed anyone in ages. So, they are throwing the money away. As usual. Again, this proves if you execute them quickly, you save a ton of money. If you are not going to execute timely, then repeal the law and just give them life w/o parole. Either way, they need to make up their f'n minds!