To replace capital punishment with lifetime imprisonment would cost the government and the people of the country money. In California, the death penalty system cost taxpayers $114 million per year beyond the costs of keeping convicts locked up for life and taxpayers have paid more than $250 million for each of the state's executions. (L.A. Times, March 6, 2005)
The money are needed to build a place for the convicts to stay which is the prison cells and the money is also used for the basic needs of the convicts such as food, water, clothings and toilet necessities. To keep convicts for life is spending money on people until they die for doing practically nothing but get locked up in prison cells.