The AP is up with a report from the Washington State Department of Corrections claiming to have spent $97,814.09 on the execution of convicted rapist and murderer Cal Coburn Brown in September. It’s unclear whether the large figure says more about the long, expensive process involved with executing someone or about the long, expensive process involved with anything to do with the state prison system.Few would argue that Brown didn’t deserve to die. He was convicted of raping, torturing and strangling 21-year-old Holly Washa to death in 1991.Still, the costs involved are hard to dismiss. Not that it would have been any cheaper to house him indefinitely. The $98K is for the execution alone and doesn’t take into account the costs incurred with housing him for 17 years prior to his lethal injection. The AP story cites figures of $21,316 per year that it cost to house an inmate in 1997 to $43,352 per year today. Averaging the two numbers would mean it cost about $375,000 to put a death row roof over Brown’s head for all those years.A separate report by the Pew Center on the States that analyzed dozens of factors in the country’s prison system, puts the cost closer to $490,000.At that rate, Brown was costing what amounts to an average journalist’s salary over 17 years, plus a $100K retirement bonus when he finished.Still trying to figure out who that fact is more insulting to.