NEWS FLASH

Perry’s 234 Executions Cost Texas Taxpayers Over $700 Million | Self-described fiscal conservative Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX) apparently doesn’t mind spending extravagantly when it comes to putting people to death in the state of Texas. Nona Willis Aronowitz reports in Good that in Texas, a death penalty case costs taxpayers an average of $3 million, or “about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.” That translates to over $700 million for the 234 executions Perry has overseen as governor. That’s not including the exorbitant cost of maintaining 310 inmates on death row — Texas will spend $15.5 million on those prisoners this year alone.