Originally Posted by Hydromorphone Originally Posted by

My reply is mostly off-topic, but the reason the cost is so high for death row tends to be how clogged up the system is. Realistically, if someone was charged with the death penalty in the U.S., if they simply transferred him to a jail (jails being different than prisons, largely in time served) and had a maximum of 3-9 months waiting period, and then executed via lethal injection, it would cost the average taxpayer pennies. It's absolutely ridiculous how inefficient it seems to be for it to have almost as high a cost to kill someone than it does to keep them in jail for 40, 50, 60 years.



They could easily use cheap opiates as well rather than the cocktail of multiple drugs they use now, I believe they use three different solutions. A massive depressant and system overdose of opiates, such as morphine in the 1,000 - 2,000mg range would easily depress breathing enough to kill, and morphine is exceedingly cheap. From the time someone is sentenced, to the time of execution, if they drove him immediately after I estimate the total cost would be, with facilities and the drugs used, anywhere from $100 - 400, not including paid wages for employees or doctors if necessary. Of course, they usually want drugs that cause a very quick shut-down of the human biological processes, and opiates could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 2 hours or more to cause death, but still.



Not personally saying my views on the death penalty which are more complex, but America's prison system and death row, are extremely inefficient. It's also unbelievable that a murderer would be allowed to be near children. You'd think anyone charged for assault or murder would be categorically denied access to jobs primarily working with youth or the general population, but it continually happens.