12 March 2026 :
March 9, 2026 - USA. Costs and the Death Penalty
DPI’s “What to Know” series examines capital punishment from multiple angles, one topic at a time. Each installment provides essential facts and data on specific aspects of the death penalty. This installment looks at the costs associated with pursuit of death sentences and executions.
Why it matters: The question at the heart of this issue is whether the assumed benefits of the death penalty are worth its costs and whether other systems might provide similar benefits at less cost.
"It is a simple fact that seeking the death penalty is more expensive. There is not one credible study, to our knowledge, that presents evidence to the contrary".
From An Analysis of the Economic Costs of Capital Punishment in Oklahoma, Prepared for the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, 2017
Key Facts:
- According to recent estimates, the death penalty costs taxpayers 2.5 to 5 times more than life imprisonment.
- Studies have consistently confirmed capital cases take longer and incur much higher trial and appeal costs than non-capital cases. In a recent case, a Texas district attorney abandoned a 6-year quest for the death penalty before the start of a trial on state charges after spending $6 million.
- Compensation for wrongful conviction can also be high in death penalty cases: Glynn Simmons received $7.15 million in connection with his exoneration in 2024.
- Incarcerating people who are sentenced to death requires 2 – 3 times more resources than average prisoners.
- Non-capital trials do not involve the additional expense associated with executions.
- Costs estimates for states seeking to reinstate the death penalty are considerable.
Overview: What Makes the Death Penalty so Expensive?
Studies consistently show that the death penalty is significantly more expensive than life imprisonment, with recent estimates around the country ranging from 2.5 to 5 times the cost. Factors contributing to higher costs in capital cases include the need for a larger, uniquely qualified legal defense team; more complex pretrial procedures, trials, appeals and retrials; additional security and staff during trial and incarceration; compensation for wrongful convictions; and expensive drugs and materials for execution. Trial costs can be further compounded when prosecutors decide to pursue another death sentence even after their own misconduct has resulted in an order for a new trial.
Studies Confirm: Capital Cases Take Longer and Incur Much Higher Trial and Appeal Costs Than Non-Capital Cases
How much the death penalty actually costs in time and money and how that compares to a system in which a life sentence is the maximum punishment has been determined by many sophisticated research studies, most at the state level. The conclusions are consistent: capital trials are more lengthy and expensive than non-capital trials.
Death penalty cases are unquestionably more time intensive. Studies show capital cases take anywhere from twice to 6 times longer in court than other homicide cases. One study found the time from charging a defendant to final sentencing in death cases took almost 4 times longer than in non-capital cases (1,902 days versus 526 days). State supreme court justices participating in a study by the Kansas Judicial Council reported devoting 20 times as many hours to write the lead opinion for a death penalty case, compared to a non-death penalty case.
Longer cases necessarily result in higher costs. A 2021 report by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission evaluated both quantitative and qualitative studies from a variety of states and found that death penalty cases cost between 2.5 and 5 times more than non-capital cases. According to the report, in some states, capital cases require between $1 million and $3 million more per case than cases seeking life imprisonment. A 2025 review by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency compiled in response to House Bill 1030, found that trying a death penalty case in Indiana costs eight times more than a case seeking to impose life without parole ($290,022 versus $36,173).
Case in Point: In 2025, in response to surviving family members’ wishes, the El Paso County, Texas, District Attorney dropped the death penalty against Patrick Crusius in exchange for a guilty plea, after spending $6 million. Mr. Crusius, who suffers from severe mental illness (SMI) was already serving 90 federal life sentences in connection with the racially-motivated murders of 23 people at a Walmart in 2019.
Source: Texans Against the Death Penalty, 2025 Annual Report
Trials in which prosecutors seek the death penalty also incur higher legal costs than cases without the death penalty because of the intensive prosecution and defense efforts required to investigate and present the case. In a document prepared for the Kentucky legislature in 2019, Damon Preston, the Public Advocate of Kentucky, noted that capital cases typically involve two to three attorneys during the entire duration of the case, as well as experienced professionals such as capital investigators, mitigation specialists that must investigate the defendant’s life history, and others. Prosecution expenses are similarly high, but a breakdown of costs is not typically made public.
Case in Point: A 2025 investigation into more than 300 cases since 2005 where Maricopa County, Arizona prosecutors sought the death penalty found only 13% resulted in death sentences. In the case of Jodi Arias, who was convicted in 2013 for killing her boyfriend, Maricopa County prosecutors twice sought the death penalty, and twice the jury deadlocked. She was sentenced to life in prison. According to officials at the time, the 2 trials cost the county $3.2 million.
Source: Joint investigation by ProPublica and ABC15, June 2025.
The generally high cost of the death penalty is compounded when prosecutors decide to pursue another death sentence — sometimes even after their own misconduct has resulted in an order for a new trial. In 2025 Death Penalty Information Center analyzed nine individuals sentenced to death four or more times for the same crime who were permanently removed from death row. The analysis found the individuals collectively experienced at least 43 capital trials or sentencing proceedings — only for juries, courts, or prosecutors to ultimately determine that life in prison was the appropriate sentence.
Compensation for Wrongful Convictions Also Drives Up the Cost of Death Penalty Cases
Not everyone sentenced to death is guilty, and compensating those who have been wrongly convicted adds another layer of expense to the cost of capital punishment. At least 202 individuals sentenced to death in 30 states have been exonerated since 1973, with as many as 12 exonerations in a given year (2003). DPI has identified another 21 individuals who were executed where there is strong evidence of their innocence. At least 20 more have been declared innocent posthumously since 2000.
In most of these cases, those wrongfully convicted seek compensation for their time on death row. Given the loss of liberty, reputation, and opportunity for employment, compensation amounts are justifiably high. According to a fiscal note complied by the Arizona Joint Legislative Budget Committee (JLBC) to accompany a bill introduced in 2025 that sought to compensate both capitally and non-capitally-charged exonerated individuals, the cost to compensate an individual for “past erroneous convictions” would be $937,5001. This estimate is low for capitally charged individuals. In 2024, the city of Edmond, Oklahoma agreed to pay $7.15 million to Glynn Simmons, the longest-incarcerated innocent person in the United States.
Incarcerating People Who are Sentenced to Death Requires 2 – 3 Times More Resources
Many states’ death rows are housed in special, high-security facilities, and individuals sentenced to death are often in solitary confinement. According to an Urban Institute Justice Policy Center research report, supermax prisons are 2 – 3 times costlier to construct and operate than maximum security prisons due to single-capacity prison cells and enhanced security requirements. In other situations, such as Kansas, where individuals sentenced to death are instead placed in administrative segregation instead of a separate death row, the cost of housing prisoners doubles, at a cost of $49,380 each year to house death-sentenced prisoners versus $24,690 to house prisoners in general population. Florida’s Broward County jail reported spending more than $2.5 million to house and supervise Nikolas Cruz during his capital trial in which he was ultimately sentenced to life without parole.
Non-Capital Trials Do Not Involve the Additional Expenses Associated With Executions
The cost of the barbiturate pentobarbital, the drug commonly used to perform lethal injection executions, is extremely high. In October 2025, Indiana Governor Mike Braun disclosed the state had spent $1.175 million on drug supplies over the past 2 years. Between 2017 and 2020, Tennessee reportedly spent $95,000 on lethal injection drugs per execution. According to records obtained by The Guardian, in October 2020, Arizona spent $1.5 million on 1,000 1-gram vials of pentobarbital. According to the same reporting by The Guardian, Harvard medical school lecturer Prashant Yadav estimates that some states pay as much as a 1,000% markup on execution drugs in comparison to the typical market price, due to lack of regulation.
Idaho is taking a different — yet still costly — approach to executions. A 2023 law passed by Governor Brad Little authorized the use of the firing squad as a method of execution. The law included an estimated cost of $750,000 to renovate Idaho’s Maximum Security Institution to make it suitable for this new execution method, in line with legislation passed in 2025 making this the state’s primary method of execution, effective July 1, 2026.
The Cost of Reinstating the Death Penalty is Also Considerable
No state that has abolished the death penalty in the modern era (since 1973) has reinstated it subsequently, but in some states, legislators continue to try to do so. Over the past two legislative sessions, West Virginia has considered 2 bills, SB 1037 and SB 264 that propose to reinstate the death penalty, which was abolished in the state 60 years ago. Estimates that accompanied both bills suggest the cost of reinstatement would be considerable. The West Virginia Division of Corrections (WVDOC) and Rehabilitation estimates $25 million for new facilities (“a 75 bed unit for Death Row inmates”) and at least $1.4 million for new personnel and training and housing of prisoners (with inflation driving those costs “significantly higher”), plus an additional $200,000 in annual costs to hire an experienced attorney to handle death penalty cases for the WVDOC, and an unspecified amount for “an execution chamber to be constructed.” The WVDOC estimated that “It would cost the agency approximately $1,418,080.00 based on today’s cost per inmate to house and carry out the execution of sentence.” The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia estimated that it would cost roughly $117,000 for an additional staff attorney to handle appeals.
https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/what-to-know-costs-and-the-death-penalty
