The cost of an execution is much higher than life imprisonment. At a time when state budgets are stretched, the high costs of the death penalty make little sense to some states that have undergone cuts. The average cost of a single death penalty varies from 1 million to 3 million. This is simply not smart. Evidence shows that carrying out an execution costs so much that it is not smart to use the death penalty again. (Delcour, Julie) Legislation will not help prevent racial bias in death penalty sentencing. In August 2009, the governor of North Carolina signed the Racial Justice Act, which was supposed to ensure that no one would be discriminated against in the death penalty. Someone could use the “Racial Justice Act” to get out of the death penalty, regardless of the amount of evidence against the person and the brutality of the crime. In the federal system there were 37 prisoners sentenced to death, 43.2% were white, while 54.1% were African American. This evidence supports the counterclaim because if someone uses the racial justice law to get out of the death penalty, then deterrence rates will decline because everyone else thinks they can use the law to get out of the enviable. (Servatius,