Capital punishment is an emotional issue for many. Individual opinions can be based on personal experiences and moral views. But another topic that is sometimes debated is cost.

Proponents of the death penalty do not feel it is right for the state and taxpayers to pay to keep a convicted criminal in jail instead of pursuing a potentially less costly option: execution. Opponents of the death penalty, alternatively, often cite statistics that show the death penalty to be more costly than life imprisonment. The Dallas Morning News noted that "In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years."

Supporters argue that cost analyses opposing the death penalty are flawed. They claim that comparisons don't take into account other cost factors, such as stress on the judicial system during imprisonment, medical care for individuals given life without parole, potential injury or death to inmates by violence, risk and perceived risk of escape, and the public fear that the individual might be paroled.

"... most comparisons of the cost of life imprisonment with the cost of execution, apart from their dubious relevance, are flawed at least by the implied assumption that life prisoners will generate no judicial costs during their imprisonment."
—Ernest van den Haag, Professor of Jurisprudence, Fordham University

In addition, many supporters of capital punishment do not believe the cost of implementing the death penalty needs to be so high. They propose to accelerate executions and limit the number of appeals in order to lower the cost of death penalty cases.

And some supporters deem the cost issue to be irrelevant to the argument. They would shoulder the financial burden in exchange for the peace of mind from knowing that the convicted individual has been punished for his or her crime and will not kill again:

"At any rate, the actual monetary costs are trumped by the importance of doing justice."
—Ernest van den Haag, Professor of Jurisprudence, Fordham University