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Frequently Asked Questions
Isn't it more expensive to keep someone imprisoned for life rather than executing them?
No, that's not the case. When considering costs, we have to consider not only the price of physically execute someone, but also the related trial and appeals expenses. While incarceration is expensive (about $20,000 per year per inmate), the total cost is about $600,000 to $800,000 if the person spends 30 to 40 years in jail. Compare this figure to $2 million, which is the typical cost associated with a single execution. The Miami Herald reported that Florida spent about $57 million on the death penalty from 1973 to 1988. Divide this figure by the 18 actual executions that occurred for an average cost of $3.2 million per execution. Even if math is your worse subject, it's easy to compare an average of $700,000 to $3.2 million!
Can a person under 18 be executed?
Yes. Each state sets its own age minimum for execution, ranging from 16 to 18 years old. As recently as last month, a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 1999 barred the execution of anyone under the age of 17. But on November 5, 2002, voters overwhelming approved a constitutional amendment that requires the State to follow U.S. Supreme Court precedents regarding the death penalty, and the Supreme Court has already affirmed its approval of the execution of 16-year-old offenders. That means whatever the federal high court declares with regard to standards for evaluating the Eight Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, Florida courts must follow. While it's rare for a 16 year-old to be executed, it does happen in the U.S.: in 1959 Leonard Shockley, 16, died in Maryland's gas chamber and 40 years later Sean Sellers,16, was executed in Oklahoma. Virtually all other countries in the world have signed an international treaty (International Covenant on Civil & Political Rights) forbidding the execution of juveniles. In fact, the only other countries to allow juvenile executions are Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen.
What exactly is a moratorium?
A moratorium is a suspension of activity. Applied to the death penalty, it is a suspension on executions until the unfairness and inaccuracies in the death penalty system are fixed. In January 2000, Illinois declared a moratorium after the State was forced to release13 innocent prisoners from death row. Recently, the Governor of Maryland also declared a moratorium on executions after reviewing a study showing racial bias in the administration of capital punishment in that State. Floridians who oppose the death penalty have been urging Governor Bush to take a similar position and adopt many of the same recommendations for reform as Illinois. This past January, thousands of protestors joined together for a "Walk for a Time Out on Executions." Beginning at the Florida State Prison in Starke, they walked 143 miles to the Florida State Capitol in Tallahassee to deliver petitions calling for a moratorium on the death penalty in Florida.
