CA Death Penalty Costs $184M Annually

The Huffington Post reports:

California has rarely executed convicts since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1978, but the state has managed to spend $4 billion taxpayer dollars on capital punishment since then, according to a new cost analysis.

The study, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimates that the 13 executions California has carried out in the past three decades have cost an average of $308 million each in legal fees and death row security costs. According to the em>L.A. Times<, a death penalty prosecution can cost the state up to 20 times more than a life-without-parole case.

Since the lag in California between a death row conviction and an execution now averages more than 25 years, and the state hasn't executed one prisoner since 2006, critics of the death penalty are wondering exactly what Californians are receiving in return for their money -- especially given the state's mounting budget concerns.