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I think most Americans don't realize how expensive the death penalty is, and IME when you explain it to them, their response is usually something like, "Well they should just shoot them, bullets are cheap." People are more inclined to see the expense of the death penalty as government inefficiency that needs to be fixed, rather than a reason to get rid of it.
In other words,
Surely there's more to it than most Americans just being blood thirsty monsters, right?
No.
Can you explain why its so expensive? Not how but why
Why is the death penalty so expensive?
Legal costs: Almost all people who face the death penalty cannot afford their own attorney. The state must assign public defenders or court-appointed lawyers to represent them (the accepted practice is to assign two lawyers), and pay for the costs of the prosecution as well.
Pre-trial costs: Capital cases are far more complicated than non-capital cases and take longer to go to trial. Experts will probably be needed on forensic evidence, mental health, and the background and life history of the defendant. County taxpayers pick up the costs of added security and longer pre-trial detention.
Jury selection: Because of the need to question jurors thoroughly on their views about the death penalty, jury selection in capital cases is much more time consuming and expensive.
Trial: Death-penalty trials can last more than four times longer than non-capital trials, requiring juror and attorney compensation, in addition to court personnel and other related costs.
Incarceration: Most death rows involve solitary confinement in a special facility. These require more security and other accommodations as the prisoners are kept for 23 hours a day in their cells.
Appeals: To minimize mistakes, every prisoner is entitled to a series of appeals. The costs are borne at taxpayers’ expense. These appeals are essential because some inmates have come within hours of execution before evidence was uncovered proving their innocence.
Genuinely how would ending the death penalty change those? Those are all costs of the court case, which still has to happen for the same crime. That's not the cost of the death penalty
The fact that we spend so much money to ensure no one is unfairly sentenced to the death is not a reason to keep the death penalty. It is cheaper to house an inmate for life than to go through the legal process of charging them with death.
And even then people get unjustly sentenced to death, like, all the fucking time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_exonerated_death_row_inmates#United_States