Explain why capital punishment costs taxpayers so much money. Then compare and contrast the methods that opposing sides suggest to reduce those financial costs.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Varies. A sample answer follows. Capital punishment is extremely expensive to taxpayers. Death row inmates often spend years or decades in heavily guarded "supermax" prisons. They are usually more heavily guarded than other prisoners. These inmates are entitled to lengthy appeals processes, so the state must spend money on lawyers.
Opponents of capital punishment argue that governments should convert all death row inmates to life without parole within maximum-security prisons. Experts estimate that if California used this method, the state would save tens of millions of dollars a year and billions of dollars over the next 20 years.
Proponents of capital punishment argue that the government could save substantial amounts of money by shortening the appeals process and further limiting the rights of death row inmates. Proposition 66, a law that makes those changes, passed in California in 2016.