Two bills in House would end death penalty in Tx


POSTED: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 - 6:21pm

UPDATED: Friday, April 15, 2011 - 1:02am

Two new bills filed in the Texas House of Representatives this session would completely eliminate the death penalty.

Lawmakers say whether you're for it or against it housing death row inmates is just too expensive.

Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.

314 inmates are currently on death row in Texas.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice on average the cost to house an inmate is around $37.03 a day versus the $49.54 a day is costs for a death row inmate.

Representative Jessica Farrar has filed one of the two bills this session that would eliminate the death penalty altogether.


Jessica Wilson/

Comments News Comments

They say we cannot afford to execute inmates that commit a capital offense. There is no reason for it to cost $49 a day to house them. The problem is they have too many "rights". These inmates have never observed the rights of others so i say stop spending so much on them. Besides, keeping them in there for life is even more expensive. If they would start executing them on schedule, that would solve the problem.

The cost of the death penalty is not just in housing inmates, but the second aspect of the original trial - penalty phase when the death penalty is sought, experts called to testify, the automatic appeals and multiple appeals through the different layers of courts. These appeals are necessary to catch the wrongfully convicted - which even with this layer of protection are not always caught.

I used to support the death penalty but with all the convictions being overturned with DNA testing, I'm afraid we have already executed innocent people. If there's no way to be 100% sure the person executed actually did the crime we should not execute anyone. With imprisonment for life there is at least a chance to correct an error in the justice system.

How stupid are the people we send to Austin? If we get rid of the death penalty because it costs 12 dollars more a day, then how much more will it cost to keep them for the rest of their life? Think about it, $49.00 a day for 10-12 years or $37.00 for 25 to life. It would cost $214,620 for someone on death row for 12 years, compared to $337,625 for someone in general population for 25 years. How about electing politicians with common sense and really save the Great State of Texas some money.

What you did not include in your calculation for keeping someone on death row for 12 years ($214,620), is the $2.3 million dollar cost in court fees and appeal fees it took to sentence the individual to death row. If you add $2.3 million to $214, 620, it is incredibly more expensive to sentence someone to death row rather than sentencing someone to life in prison.

There are people on Death Row who have been there for 20+ years

Well for reasons partly articulated by the person above, namely that killing people by the state is immoral from the point of view of any, even rudimentary religion, and that a law system is not 100% water tight as demosntrated by DNA testing, a civilise state should not kill people. Because it does, and in particularly the way it does it as well, Texas is NOT considered as a Great State as you say in the rest of the world but as a back water, left behind.

Post new Comment