by Zoë Pollock
Steve Chapman argues that capital punishment should be abolished on budgetary grounds:
Maryland has spent $186 million on capital cases over the past 30 yearswhich comes to $37 million per execution. The typical Texas death case carries a price tag of $2.3 million. A 2005 study pointed out that "New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one."