Not necessarily, the cost to keep Casey in jail for LWOP as a young adult probably well into an advanced age, the argument could be made that that would be FAR more expensive, especially if there were major medical costs as she advances into old age. I would say it is about 1/2 dozen to one and 6 to the other.
That is not true - I did a quick search 'death cost penalty Florida' and this poped up first thing.
By S.V. Date: Palm Beach Post Capital Bureau
Palm Beach Post, A SECTION, Pg. 1A
January 4, 2000
What price for vengeance on society's worst killers?
In Florida, try $ 51 million a year.
That, according to a Palm Beach Post estimate, is how much Florida spends each year to enforce the death penalty - above and beyond what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole.
And at the rate at which Florida is executing its killers (there have been only 44 since executions resumed in 1979), it's costing about $ 24 million per electrocuted murderer. "That is an astounding figure," said Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference and, on behalf of the church, a perennial death penalty opponent.
"It's costing the state of Florida a small fortune," said Elliott Metcalfe, president of the Florida Public Defenders Association and the public defender in Sarasota and Manatee counties.
"It is much cheaper to put these people in prison and leave them there until they die. Simple as that."
According to The Post's estimate, it is about $ 23 million cheaper, even for an inmate who is imprisoned in his 20s and dies in his 70s.
The Post's figure was derived using estimates of how much time prosecutors and public defenders at the trial courts and the Florida Supreme Court, which devotes approximately half its time to death penalty cases, spend on the extra work needed in capital cases. It accounts also for the time and effort expended on defendants who are tried but convicted of a lesser murder charge and whose death sentences are overturned on appeal as well as those handful of condemned inmates who are actually executed.
And while the actual cost of prosecuting, convicting and executing an individual killer in Florida has been estimated at about $ 3.2 million, some lawmakers contend the death penalty is worth whatever it takes.By S.V.
