Across the United States of America, unfortunately, due to lack of funding, police officers are being fired, prisoners are being freed, justice systems are being bombarded with cases and the overall crime rate in this country continues to climb higher and higher despite our efforts to lower it. After the 2008 economic crisis that pushed our country into recession, the criminal justice system was forced to cut to the core. Many states across America were forced to release large numbers of prisoners early due to a lack of funding. For example, the State of Florida released over 2,500 inmates due to the budget crisis caused by the recession. The State of Texas has allowed convicted felons to serve less than fifty percent of their sentences because it simply cannot afford to keep them behind bars any longer. These same states invest millions of dollars in the death penalty every year. In many cases it has been shown that the cost of a death penalty case is much greater than that of a life without parole case. One such case emerges from a study conducted in Colorado that concluded that capital cases take an average of one hundred and twenty-three days longer than a life without parole case. (Marceau, 2013) This case also noted that it takes approximately two days to select a jury for a life without parole case while it takes approximately 30 days to select a jury for a capital case. Overall, the proceedings for a life without parole case take approximately days, while the proceedings for a capital case take almost 4 years to conduct. Since 1978 the State of California alone has spent almost four billion dollars to create the d...... middle of paper...... therefore supporting the judicial system of the United States of America. In conclusion, the death penalty is too expensive and time consuming to implement in order to effectively prevent the general public from committing murder and other violent acts associated with it. Works Cited Capital Punishment. (n.d.). Collins English Dictionary: Complete and Unabridged Tenth Edition. Retrieved October 29, 2013, from the Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/capital PunishmentJ. Marceau and H. Whitson, “The Cost of the Death Penalty in Colorado,” 3 Univ. of Denver Criminal Law Review 145 (2013)).Murder. (n.d.). Online etymology dictionary. Retrieved October 29, 2013, from the Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/murderState of California. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Capital punishment. CA.gov. October 28. 2013