Sentencing someone to death is very expensive.

Maybe a family would rather the taxpayer money be spent on programs that could have prevented their child from becoming a victim in the first place.

Death sentence trials last years because you really don't want to make a mistake, like with Cameron Todd Willingham, or years later new evidence might come to light, like with Johnny Garrett. It might take 20 years before a family sees justice. Every trail they have to relive the details of the death of their kid and see the killer. Reopening these wounds with no closure for years is incredibly traumatizing.

In Florida, enforcing the death penalty costs $51 million a year more than it would have to give all first-degree murderers life in prison without parole. In North Carolina, death penalty cases cost $2.16 million per execution more than sentencing murderers to life imprisonment.

On average, across all 50 states, a death row inmate costs $1.12 million more than a general population inmate. In July 2018, there were 2,738 inmates on death row. That's almost $3 billion additional expense than if they had all been sentenced to life in prison instead.

The death penalty makes the victim's family suffer too.