The Death Penelty In A Time of Recession

Europeans look down upon America's death penalty as a reflection of America's less sophisticated ways in contrast to execution-free Europe.

Not only American states have the death penalty, 14 out of 50 have outlawed it since the Supreme Court declared it constitutional once again in the 1980s. And nearly of America's executions are within uber-conservative Texas.

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But America may begin to adopt the European model. A few years back the Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for minors and the mentally ill and now several states may outlaw it all together. But the motive isn't on moral grounds, but on practical ones.

Administering the death penalty is quite expensive. Those on death row often go through several trials due to America's well-layered appeals process and are locked up in costly halls in prison awaiting their fate. These costs to the state eventually total more than locking someone for life.

The state of Maryland's death penalty process costs taxpayers $3 million as opposed to a life sentence at the cost of $1.

As states face budget deficits due to the economic recession, many are seeking to abolish the death penalty to save money. Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico and New Hampshire are among the states considering doing away with state executions.

And Colorado intends to invest most of the saved money in solving unsolved crimes.

"According to Paul Weissman, the state House majority leader and the bill’s co-sponsor, around 1,400 murders are still unsolved in the state. Eliminating the death penalty will finance the new unit and leave an extra $1m for other state programmes."

After the recession, America may find itself a nation more Europeanized at least in this regard.

My solution. I will borrow the suggestion of the great satirist Lewis Black: "Bathtub and toaster."