cost of death penalty vs life imprisonment
1 The death penalty costs more than life imprisonment. 2  It costs taxpayers from $2 to $5 million per death sentence for the trials and appeals. 3  Life in prison averages $1 million (40 years at $25,000/year). The death penalty costs more than life imprisonment. 2  It costs taxpayers from $2 to $5 million per death sentence for the trials and appeals. 3  Life in prison averages $1 million (40 years at $25,000/year).
On direct appeal, the cost of appellate defense averages $100,000 more in death penalty cases, than in non-death penalty murder cases. Personal restraint petitions filed in death penalty cases on average cost an additional $137,000 in public defense costs.he study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000.