The Nation - News from July 11, 1988

Florida taxpayers spent $57.2 million to execute the 18 men who have died in the electric chair since capital punishment was reinstated, more than six times what it would have cost to imprison them for life, it was reported. The Miami Herald calculated the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail for life, about 40 years, at $515,964. But Florida spent at least $3.17 million for each execution, largely because of the cost of years of appeals. The report said that the death penalty is costly, slow, inefficient and failing, noting that 36 Florida Death Row inmates have been there more than 10 years.