Since part of the debate is about cost, here is a report on the overall cost of the death penality in different states:
Costs of the Death Penalty
DPIC Report:
Millions Misspent: What Politicians Don't Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty (updated version, 1994)
Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, regarding the costs of the death penalty to the Assembly and Senate of Nevada, Legislative Commission's Subcommittee to Study the Death Penalty and Related DNA Testing.
Financial Facts About the Death Penalty:
The most comprehensive study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of imprisonment for life (Duke University, May 1993.) On a national basis, these figures translate to an extra cost of over $1 billion dollars spent since 1976 on the death penalty. The study,"The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina" is available on line at www-pps.aas.duke.edu/people/faculty/cook/comnc.pdf
The death penalty costs California $90 million annually beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system - $78 million of that total in incurred at the trial level (Sacramento Bee, March 18, 1988).
Florida spent an estimated $57 million on the death penalty from 1973 to 1988 to achieve 18 executions - that is an average of $3.2 million per execution. (Miami Herald, July 10, 1988).
In Texas, a death penalty case costs 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. (Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992).
$ Georgia Judge Notes Expensive Bottom Line in Capital Cases
A recent death penalty case in Georgia has led Fulton County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Manis to question the value of expensive capital trials. "The death penalty has great popular appeal, but I don't think the taxpayers have looked at the bottom line," she said. "The death penalty is .... expensive." Expenses for the capital trial of Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin, who received a sentence of life without the possibility of parole, included the following:
The District Attorney dedicated four prosecutors and a full-time investigator to the case during the trial and in the months leading up to it. Independent of the time spent preparing for the case, the prosecutor's salaries exceeded $74,000 for the two months of trial and jury selection.
The District Attorney's Office spent approximately $34,000 for equipment, graphic design for court exhibits, and expert testimony. An additional $43,000 was spent on overtime for investigators.
$164,000 in fees and expenses were spent for one of the defense attorneys in the Al-Amin case. Two additional lawyers have yet to submit bills and these additional charges are expected to put total legal fees well above $200,000.
It cost more than $87,000 to select and sequester the jury for this case. This amount included $63,600 for hotel rooms, dinners and drinks for jurors, $6,000 for juror lunches and beverages, $2,500 for juror transportation, $765 for entertainment expenses, and $14,300 to copy the questionnaires used to pick the jury. This amount does not include the overtime paid to sheriff's deputies who guarded the jury and the court.
(Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 12, 2002)
$ The High Cost of New York's Death Penalty
A recent review conducted by the New York Law Journal found that the 1995 reinstatement of New York's death penalty has cost the state millions in taxpayer dollars and has consumed an immense amount of time of judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys. The Journal's findings include:
New York's Division of Criminal Justice Services has reimbursed more than $5 million to counties that have prosecuted capital cases.
The state spends $1.2 million annually to fund the New York Prosecutors Training Institute that provides lawyers to assist district attorneys on capital cases.
The Brooklyn District Attorney's office was reimbursed $707,259 to cover the personnel cost of one case, the prosecution of Darrel K. Harris. This total does not reflect non-personnel expenses, including expert fees and the work of Jonathan L. Frank, who served as the lead appellate attorney for the prosecution. Frank estimates that he donated more than 600 hours of time to the case.
During the preparation of its 1,181-page brief for the Harris case, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office was assisted by prosecutors in 8 other counties.
The defense team for Harris spent approximately $1.7 million to mount his defense, and the state's Capital Defender Office invested $1.2 million into producing the team's 779-page brief.
The budget for the New York Court of Appeals has increased by more than $533,000 annually to enable each of the Court's 7 judges to have an additional clerk for capital cases.
While a non-capital murder requires no more than two prosecutors, death penalty cases require at least three or four. The Queens District Attorney's Office estimates that seeking the death penalty translates into 300% to 500% more work than for a non-capital murder trial.
In addition to the funds required to try death penalty cases, the State Department of Correctional Services spent $1.3 million to construct New York's death row for 12 inmates and it pays nearly $300,000 per year to guard the unit. (New York Law Journal, April 30, 2002).
$ Philadelphia District Attorney Questioned About Death Penalty Costs
At a Philadelphia City Council budget hearing, councilman Michael Nutter questioned District Attorney Lynne A. Abraham about the costs of the death penalty. Abraham noted that in 2001 there were 309 homicides in Philadelphia, prosecutors filed initial notice that they might pursue the death penalty in 144 cases; they sought the death penalty in 67 cases; and only 2 were sent to death row. Of the remaining cases, 44 people were sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, 12 were convicted of 2nd or 3rd-degree murder, and 9 were found not guilty.
"Given what some of these numbers are, is the death sentence being overly applied for?" asked Nutter. "Obviously, there's a significant gap between the start of the process and the end. Is there overcharging going on?" Abraham responded: "We don't overcharge anyone, if we can avoid it . . . . We have the right to seek the death penalty in all appropriate cases, and that's what we do." With respect to the costs, Abraham responded: "We're not interested . . . . We have no intention of pursing that exercise." (Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/15/02)
$ The High Cost of the Death Penalty:
"As a growing number of local governments are discovering, there is often a new twist on an old saying: Nothing is certain except the death penalty and higher taxes. . . . Just prosecuting a capital crime can cost an average of $200,000 to $300,000, according to a conservative estimate by the Texas Office of Court Administration. Add indigent-defense lawyers, an almost-automatic appeal and a trial transcript, and death-penalty cases can easily cost many times that amount. . . . The cost, county officials say, can be an unexpected and severe budgetary shock -- much like a natural disaster, but without any federal relief to ease the strain. To pay up, counties must raise taxes, cut services, or both."
(Wall Street Journal, 1/9/02)
$ The Arizona Supreme Court recently remanded a death penalty case for re-sentencing to a county that does not have the resources to pay for it. By law, counties are required to fund a specialist to gather mitigating evidence for the defense to use at the sentencing phase. Some jurisdictions, however, do not have the money to pay for pre-sentencing investigation. The situation puts smaller counties in the position of choosing to pursue capital sentencing based on cost. This would make the application of the death penalty in Arizona arbitrary because those who commit capital crimes in the state's larger counties (Pima and Maricopa) will more likely be subject to the death penalty simply because of resources. "If you live in Pima or Maricopa county you're going to get one form of treatment, while anywhere else you're going to get a different form of treatment," said Sen. Elaine Richardson, who earlier this year sponsored a bill to deal with the issue by siphoning state financial support for capital cases. The bill passed the Senate but failed in the House. (Arizona Capitol Times, 5/29/01)
$ The Savannah Morning News recently reported that small counties in Georgia are going broke prosecuting death penalty cases. "If you're spending $300,000 for a (death penalty) case, that's $300,000 that could be used for buying road equipment, paying salaries, the fire and sheriff's departments. We don't have a lot of room to play with," said Richard Douglas, the Long County, GA, Administrator. Douglas, who had to rely on emergency state grants to keep paychecks from bouncing, added, "If you have 2 or 3 of these in a row, that can put you in a million dollar hole. We're probably not too far removed from that." (Savannah Morning News, 1/14/01)
$ "Elimination of the death penalty would result in a net savings to the state of at least several tens of millions of dollars annually, and a net savings to local governments in the millions to tens of millions of dollars on a statewide basis." --Joint Legislative Budget Committee of the California Legislature, Sept. 9, 1999 (The Catalyst, 2/22/00)
$Enforcing the death penalty costs Florida $51 million a year above and beyond what it would cost to punish all first-degree murderers with life in prison without parole, according to estimates by the Palm Beach Post. Based on the 44 executions Florida has carried out since 1976, that amounts to a cost of $24 million for each execution.
The Post's figure was derived using estimates of how much time prosecutors and public defenders spend on extra work needed in capital cases, at the trial courts and at the Florida Supreme Court, which devotes approximately half its time to death penalty cases. The estimate accounts not only for the relatively few inmates who are actually executed, but accounts for the time and effort expended on capital defendants who are tried but convicted of a lesser murder charge, and those whose death sentences are overturned on appeal. (Palm Beach Post, 1/4/00)
$The New York Daily News (which has supported the death penalty) estimated that the costs associated with pursuing the death penalty in that state could reach $238 million by the time of the first execution. If that execution is further delayed because of problems with the statute, the costs could reach $408 million. Professor James Acker, a death penalty expert from the State University of New York in Albany, noted: "There's all this money being invested up front with the intent of getting an eventual execution. But the return on the dollar of these investments is really quite poor. So the money is thrown away. If the ultimate punishment were life in prison to begin with, you wouldn't have all the added expense of a death penalty case . . . ." (N.Y. Daily News, 10/19/99)
$Colorado taxpayers have spent more than $2.5 million on five death penalty cases so far this year under the state's new three-judge-panel sentencing system. Only one of the defendants was sentenced to death.
$ The taxpayers of Suffolk County and New York State paid $2.5 million for the capital murder trial of Robert Shulman, who was sentenced to death on May 6. Because prosecutors sought the death penalty, the trial was 3.5 times more expensive than if the death penalty had not been sought. The cost was more than double what it would have cost to keep Shulman, 45, in prison for 40 years. The public cost of Shulman's sentence will continue to climb throughout his incarceration. (Newsday, 7/12/99)
$ Several lawyers in Louisiana are asking courts to postpone death penalty cases until there is sufficient funding to pay the attorneys. Because of a loss in revenue, private attorneys appointed by the court to handle death penalty cases as well as other criminal cases have not been paid in a year. The lawyers who handle these cases are concerned about the consequences for their clients: "I think poor people get poor representation. They are represented by overworked public defenders and private lawyers who aren't getting paid. That is not equal justice." (The Advocate, 4/5/99)
$Because of anticipated death penalty trial costs, Okanogan County Commissioners in Washington delayed pay raises for the county's 350 employees, then approved a 2% increase; the smallest in years. They also decided not to replace 2 of 4 public-health nurses, ordered a halt on non-emergency travel and put a hold on updating computers and county vehicles. Okanogan County shares the fate of many other rural counties across the country, where death-penalty cases are draining budgets. (Associated Press, 4/2/99)
$Thurston County in Washington state has budgeted $346,000 in 1999 alone, to seek Mitchell Rupe's 3rd death sentence. Rupe is also dying of liver disease. Washington has made extreme efforts to save Rupe from a natural death just so it can execute him. Since 1997, Thurston County budgeted nearly $700,000 for the most recent sentencing hearing alone - expenses above the daily costs absorbed by the county prosecutor's office. (Seattle Times, 3/12/99)
$ The State of Ohio spent at least $1.5 million to kill one mentally ill man who wanted to be executed. Among the costs were: $18,147 overtime for prison employees and $2,250 overtime for State Highway Patrol officers at the time of the execution. This does not include overtime for 25 prison public information officers who worked the night of the execution. The state spent $5,320 on a satellite truck so that the official announcement of Wilford Berry's execution could be beamed to outside media, and $88.42 for the lethal drugs. Attorney General Betty Montgomery had 5 to 15 prosecutors working on the case. Between 5 and 10% of the annual budget for the state's capital-crimes section was devoted to the Berry case for 5 years. Keeping Berry in prison for his entire life would have cost approximately half as much. (Columbus Dispatch, 2/28/99)
$ Many small counties are overwhelmed with the financial burden of the death penalty. "These capital-murder trials can devastate the budget of a small county," says Allen Amos, one of 55 judges from small west Texas counties in the Rural County Judges Association. "If you go to trial with an automatic appeal, you could be looking at $350,000 to $500,000 for each one of these things."(Christian Science Monitor, 2/25/99)
$ In Mississippi, the state has no system for providing lawyers for death row inmates after their direct appeal. The Mississippi Supreme Court, however, has ordered counties to start paying attorneys for post-conviction appeals. Chancery Clerk Butch Scipper of Quitman County remarked: "We're probably the poorest county in the state. We have no cash reserves and nothing is budgeted for this type of expense." He indicated they would have to raise taxes to pay for the death penalty. (Biloxi Sun Herald, 2/21/99)
$ In Indiana, three recent capital cases cost taxpayers a total of over $2 million, just for defense costs. (Prosecution costs are usually equal or more than defense costs and appellate costs will add even more expense.) Former death penalty prosecutor David Cook remarked: "If you're gonna spend this type of money in a system where there isn't much resources to go around, I think that we have a reasonable right to expect that we're gaining something by doing this. . . .We don't gain anything by doing this." (Indianapolis Star/News, 2/7/99)
$ Officials in Washington State are concerned that costs for a single death penalty trial will approach $1 million. To pay for the trial, the county has had to let one government position go unfilled, postponed employee pay hikes, drained its $300,000 contingency fund and eliminated all capital improvements. The Sheriff's request to replace a van which broke down last year for transporting prisoners has been shelved. (The Spokesman-Review, 1/19/99)
$ According to an article in the Louisiana Sunday Advertiser, prosecutor Phil Haney, who often pushes for the death penalty, says if he could be sure 'life in prison really meant life in prison,' he would be for abolishing the death penalty. It's a matter of economics, he said. "It just costs too much to execute someone." (The Sunday Advertiser, 8/23/98)
$ Jim Dwyer, columnist for the NY Daily News, recently estimated that the projected costs of imposing the death penalty on NY's first death row inmate, Darrel Harris, will be $3 million. He concluded: "After spending $3 million extra for a capital case, New York will have bought itself nothing that it could not have gotten with a sentence of life without parole." (NY Daily News, 7/28/98)
$ A report from the Nebraska Judiciary Committee states that any savings from executing an inmate are outweighed by the financial legal costs. The report concluded that the current death penalty law does not serve the best interest of Nebraskans. (Neb. Press & Dakotan, 1/27/98)
$ In a report from the Judicial Conference of the United States on the costs of the federal death penalty, it was reported that the defense costs were about 4 times higher in cases where death was sought than in comparable cases where death was not sought. Moreover, the prosecution costs in death cases were 67% higher than the defense costs, without even including the investigative costs provided by law enforcement agencies. See, Federal Death Penalty Cases: Recommendations Concerning the Cost and Quality of Defense Representation. >>>>>This cost in no way changes my mind about the death penality. Without Lawer's greed and the many apeals, this could be cut drastically.
God Bless............Alex
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