[/caption]Carol Forsloff - Want to decrease state debt? Research tells us one way to do it is to reduce the number of death penalty cases or eliminate the death penalty completely especially in conservative or "red" states where the expense of the death penalty is far greater, like Texas and Louisiana.
Richard Dieter, Executive Director of the Death Penalty Information Center, is quoted as saying with reference to the expenses of one state that has the death penalty: “Whether you’re for it or against it, I think the fact is that Oregon simply can’t afford it.”
Considering the fact Louisiana imposes the death penalty more often than Oregon, and is one of those tops on the list of states with numbers on death row as a percentage of population as well as putting to death a larger number as well, its expenditures are even greater. As of 2010 Louisiana had 85 people on death row and Oregon 32. The population of Louisiana in 2010 was 4,533,372 and Oregon was at 3,831,074 so the actual ratio of death row inmates as a factor of population is considerably higher in Louisiana.
During the period 1976 – 2010 Louisiana executed 28 people and Oregon 2. But neither approximate Texas with 486 persons executed in that same time period. Texas has a population of 25,145,561, and despite the fact it is 8 times the population of Oregon, the rate of executions is far greater. For example, if Oregon’s population were the same, there would have been 16 executions to compare with 486.
While politicians debate the issues, particularly governments expenditures, what isn’t discussed is the cost of executions and how that impacts state budgets. It should also be noted that most of these executions take place in the “red” states, or those most conservative on the political map.
