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Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/0..._n_880436.html

California has rarely executed convicts since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1978, but the state has managed to spend $4 billion taxpayer dollars on capital punishment since then, according to a new cost analysis.

The study, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimates that the 13 executions California has carried out in the past three decades have cost an average of $308 million each in legal fees and death row security costs. According to the L.A. Times, a death penalty prosecution can cost the state up to 20 times more than a life-without-parole case.

Since the lag in California between a death row conviction and an execution now averages more than 25 years, and the state hasn't executed one prisoner since 2006, critics of the death penalty are wondering exactly what Californians are receiving in return for their money -- especially given the state's mounting budget concerns.

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California currently has nearly 700 people on death row -- by far the highest in the nation. If the state holds onto the death penalty, that number could climb to over 1,000 by 2030, costing taxpayers $9 billion, the study estimates.

Other states have already begun to phase out the death penalty due to budget issues: New Mexico repealed it in 2009, Illinois lawmakers voted to ban it in March of this year, and lawmakers in Maryland and Connecticut are currently considering doing the same. But in California, state law requires a vote by referendum in order to repeal the death penalty.

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The death penalty is a questionable issue in the United States, one of the few core countries that use the death penalty. Taxpayers foot hefty bill to have the death penalty. Although there is the argument over whether the capital punishment should be used or not, states that use the death penalty have to pay a lot for it. The cost of death penalty cases in which the prosecution manages to get the conviction and sentence correctly is considerable. When prosecuting attorneys get it wrong, it makes things worse.