| Guardian - Grim reapings: how the cost of US capital punishment adds up |
The $1.9m spent on capital punishment
could pay for a year's salary for 52 police officers in New Orleans.
Photograph: Greg Smith/Corbis
Capital punishment in the US costs, on average, $1.9m more per case than life without parole. The price of sentencing one person to death could instead be spent on: • A year's salary for 52 police officers in New Orleans - the city with the highest murder rate in the US. • Two new fire trucks in Texas, where Rick Perry cut the budget used to fight wild fires and asked for federal money instead. • A refund for 6,333 City University of New York students of their $300 fee hike imposed after cuts in state and city funding. • Paying to rehire 46 teachers laid off in Detroit during the latest budget crisis and mass redundancies. • Buying health insurance for 1,400 uninsured American families. |
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