For the states which employ the death penalty, this luxury comes at a high price. In Texas, a death penalty case costs taxpayers an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years.[3] In Florida, each execution is costing the state $3.2 million.alifornia, for example, was spending $10 million a year reimbursing counties for expert witnesses, investigators and other death-penalty defense costs, plus $2 million more to help pay for the overall cost of murder trials in smaller counties.