This week, FoxNews provided detailed coverage on exactly how the current economic crisis is pushing the 35 states that still have the death penalty on their books to consider its repeal.  And yes, it’s all about the money.

New Reaction to an Well-Known Fact – Death Penalty Is Very Expensive on the State

Quoting Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center, it’s a new reaction that is being seen.  Apparently, the moral and social issues involved in capital punishment are being placed on the back burner as the number-crunchers are focusing upon a fact we’ve known for a long time:  it costs more to put someone to death in this country than for the state to simply sentence that individual to life imprisonment.

The article is worth the read.  Not that it’s anything that has been discussed here and elsewhere, but for the fact that the Money Factor may really be gaining a foothold in the fight against the death penalty. 

Let’s watch California closely now. 

Consider the numbers provided in this article that compare California’s economy (the state is broke) with the number of people living on Death Row (California hasn’t executed anyone in 30+ years), though it still sentences folk to death periodically.   And the media coverage of Billy Joe Johnson’s request to join California’s Death Row inmates was not that long ago …

Must be very tempting for California Powers that Be, in particular, to nix capital punishment as a budget cut.