NGO report

Smart on Crime: Reconsidering the Death Penalty in a Time of Economic Crisis

By Death Penalty Information Center / Richard C. Dieter, on 1 January 2009


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The death penalty in the U.S. is an enormously expensive and wasteful program with no clear benefits. All of the studies on the cost of capital punishment conclude it is much more expensive than a system with life sentences as the maximum penalty. In a time of painful budget cutbacks, states are pouring money into a system that results in a declining number of death sentences and executions that are almost exclusively carried out in just one area of the country. As many states face further deficits, it is an appropriate time to consider whether maintaining the costly death penalty system is being smart on crime.

  • Document type NGO report
  • Themes list Financial cost,



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