Tax Time Again Time to Stop Wasting Our Money!

Making Life Imprisonment Without Parole our Ultimate Punishment rather than Execution would mean Significant Savings for Taxpayers! tudies done by 12 states have proven how wasteful the death penalty is costing up to 10 times more than alternatives. Estimates of the average cost per execution in the US range from $2.5 million to $5 million.

Lets be concrete:
Maryland Over a 20-year period, $186 million more was spent pursuing death sentences than if alternatives had been sought. Seeking execution instead of life incarceration cost Maryland about $2 million more per case. Kansas -- State auditors made the conservative estimate that pursuing the death penalty in murder cases costs taxpayers over half a million dollars more than seeking life without the possibility of parole. Missouri SB 61 is calling for a cost study in MO since, even using conservative Kansas projects, MO has spent at least $93.6 million more on its 180 homicide cases by seeking death rather than Prison without Parole.

Deep concern over such prohibitive cost for the Death Penalty is rising among Prosecutors, Judges, and other Enforcement Officials:

California Former California Attorney General Cites Costs in Call for End to Capital Punishment"- LA Times, June 12, 2009 Washington Justice-System Leaders are Debating the Merits of the Death Penalty, Given Its Public Costs," Seattle Times, September 5, 2011 Colorado --- Colorado DA: Death penalty not Practical in Colorado, Boulder Daily Camera, December, 16, 2012. If you are unconvinced, Support SB-61 (Cost Study) and we will know precisely. If you need no convincing, Replace the Death Penalty with Life Imprisonment by voting for SB-247 or HB-644. Otherwise, at least help make more certain that only the guilty get executed, by voting for SB 162, SB 409, HB 575, HB 619 supported by the American Bar Association.

In these times of economic hardship, the death penalty is a needless cost that can be better used elsewhere.
This flier is part of a series prepared by Missourians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. For more information contact MADP at 816-931-4177 or visit our website at www.madpmo.org