The death penalty has been part of the American justice system since the founding of the country [1]. Most people see the death penalty as the fairest way to punish those who have killed, because, in the words of Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, “the instinct for punishment is part of the nature of man.” I agree that the delivery of justice is an important factor in any public policy. However, it is also important to consider the more pragmatic aspects, such as the cost to the state. It is possible that the financial cost may be outweighed by the social benefit. However, when researching the death penalty, one would find that the cost of capital punishment is unreasonably high, particularly in the state of California, especially when we consider how rarely the death penalty is actually carried out. In times like these, of economic crisis and scarce financial resources, the State cannot afford such an expensive and rarely used system. I believe that, in the state of California, the death penalty is excessively expensive and so rarely applied that it should be abolished. The most expensive part of the capital punishment trial is the initial and pretrial trials [2]. During this stage, the person accused of murder is found guilty or innocent. It is always at this stage that the choice is made whether or not to sentence the person in question to death. According to statistics from the Death Penalty Information Center, capital trials (cases with the possibility of the death penalty) cost about a million dollars more than a non-capital case. To put it another way, the amount of money needed to sentence someone to death could cover 8 years of schooling at Harvard University. The attribute c... at the center of the paper... the fair administration of justice, abolishing the death penalty would save the State 125.5 million dollars a year [15]. This money could be used for social programs that help deter young people from a life of crime or drugs. It could also be spent on improving the public school system, public transportation system and similar basic government services. Or we could follow in New Jersey's footsteps, and use the money as restitution to the families of the murder victims [16]. The possibilities are endless. Despite ample evidence that California's capital punishment system doesn't work, when abolition of the death penalty was on the ballot, our state voted to keep it in place [17]. Although this has disappointed opponents of the death penalty, they do not give up pursuing their cause[18]. Perhaps in the next elections the death penalty will be abolished. Only time will tell.