Capital punishment is immoral to many people in the US, but have those for whom morality is not an issue thought about the cost of capital punishment to their pocketbooks?

An IPS News article lays out the facts thus: "Forget the ethics of capital punishment in the United States. Forget the disproportionate number of blacks on death row, or the possibility of executing an innocent victim. The death penalty may really be just too expensive, according to a report released by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC).

"In its 43-page report "The Hidden Death Tax", the organisation estimates that Californian taxpayers pay at least 117 million dollars a year seeking the executions of those already on death row. This averages out at roughly 175,000 dollars a year for each death row inmate. A major part of these costs is the extra 90,000 dollars a year to keep an inmate on death row rather than locked up in a general prison.

"According to the report, if California abolished capital punishment today and allowed all 669 inmates to die a natural death in prison, the state would save 4 billion dollars in future costs.

"Of the 36 states which still have the death penalty, California has the largest number of death row inmates at 669, although only 13 have been executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. The ACLU-NC estimates that each capital trial costs an average of 1.1 million dollars more than a non-death penalty case. This is the organisation's minimum estimate.

"California is not the only state spending exorbitant amounts of money in the pursuit of capital punishment.

" '(The report) identifies issues of growing importance,' Richard Dieter, the executive directory of the Death Penalty Information Centre, told IPS. 'States are feeling economic constraints. The cost becomes important because you realise you can't shorten the process. There's either an expensive death penalty or no death penalty. There's no third option.'

"In Washington State, the Death Penalty Subcommittee of the Committee on Public Defence determined in 2007 that capital punishment cases cost 467,000 dollars more to try than ordinary murder cases. In Texas it is estimated that a death penalty trial costs an additional 2.3 million dollars, according to Dieter.

"In Florida in 2000, The Palm Beach Post estimated the state paid out 51 million dollars annually enforcing the death penalty. Recently, in New Mexico prosecutors were unable to press two death charges when the money-strapped state legislature failed to provide adequate funding for defence attorneys in a prison riot case that had already cost millions of state dollars.

"The cost factor in maintaining the death penalty is undoubtedly playing a role in the recent attempts in state legislatures to repeal capital punishment.

"Earlier, polls in Colorado conducted by RBI Strategies and Research found that voters were in a dead heat when asked whether they preferred the death penalty or life without the possibility of parole. However, when asked if the estimated 3 million dollars annually spent on the death penalty in the state could be better used solving open-murder cases, 70 percent agreed.

"Despite the legislative disappointments, both Dieter and Minsker [Natasha Minsker, who began working on the report for ACLU-NC last June.] believe that capital punishment will eventually be banned throughout the U.S."

Those states which still have the death penalty should all do a cost analysis, and since morality doesn't play a part for many regarding capital punishment, perhaps the bottom line and the millions spent on the death penalty which could be used elsewhere for the common good will be the deciding factor in abolishing capital punishment in this country.