"A million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money"

Death penalty cases are expensive. Instinctively we all know this. Fundamentally, most of us agree that they have to be. We don't want to make a mistake and execute an innocent person. Though it may often be said in the heat of an impassioned argument, only a very few truly believe that we should "kill them all and let God sort them out."

Just how expensive are they? Surprisingly, we just don't know. There has never been a full cost analysis of the death penalty in Florida. Roger Maas, Executive Director of the Legislature's Commission on Capital Cases says that a pricetag cannot be put on the death penalty because of all the variables.

Some costs have been reported:

• In 2000, the Palm Beach Post reported that the 44 executions carried out between 1976 and 2000 cost an average of $24 million each.
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• Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, recently testified that Florida spends $51 million a year above and beyond what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole.
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• The increased housing costs alone for the 391 inmates currently on death row is $3.38 million a year more than the cost of housing the average male inmate, according to data collected by the Commission On Capital Cases.

Florida's Death Penalty
System Is Expensive