Support a Moratorium
VIRGINIANS FOR
ALTERNATIVES on the Death Penalty:
TO THE DEATH PENALTY
The Capital Justice System is Broken
Innocent People May Die
There have been 130 exonerations from death row nationwide since 1973. Virginia came within days of exe-
cuting Earl Washington Jr. before allowing DNA evidence to be examined which proved his innocence. The
vast majority of capital cases have no biological evidence to test.
It Does Not Deter Crime
84% of US top academic criminological socie-
ties reject that the death penalty acts as a deter- RAGE Dag Ab — ia
rent to murder. (Radelet & Akers, 1996) A ae fot ‘ais
1995 Hart Research Poll of police chiefs in the og Go T— fe |
US put the death penalty last (at 1%) in identi- CeeeeDraatSesioors 10% i |
fying items that reduce violent crime. In fact, ie ee oan :
states with the death penalty have higher ee 1%
murder rates than those without. :
0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35%
Percent Naming Item As Primary Focus
The Death Penalty Is Too Expensive
No cost study has yet been done in VIRGINIA. Those that have studied the cost found irrefutable data that
the death penalty costs taxpayers more than life imprisonment:
e InCALIFORNIA the current system costs $137 million per year; it would cost $11.5 million for a system
without the death penalty. (California Commission for the Fair Administration of Justice, July 2008)
e InKANSAS, the costs of capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-capital cases, includ-
ing the costs of incarceration. (Kansas Performance Audit Report, December 2003)
e NORTH CAROLINA taxpayers spend $2.16 million per execution over the costs of sentencing murderers
to life imprisonment. (Duke University, May 1993)
e In FLORIDA $51 million per year is spent above what it would cost to punish all 1*-degree murderers with
life without parole. (Palm Beach Post, January 2000)
In MARYLAND death penalty cases cost 3 times more than non-death penalty cases, or $3 million for a single
case. (Urban Institute, The Cost of the Death Penalty in Maryland, March 2008)
* The greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction
proceedings. Even if all post-conviction proceedings (appeals) were abolished, the death penalty would still
be more expensive than alternative sentences.
Race Plays A Role
Researchers in Virginia found that a person is over three times as likely to be sentenced to death
when the victim is white vs. when the victim is black. (Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review
Commission of Capital Punishment) Among persons executed for interracial murders in the US: white
defendant/black victim = 15 executions, black defendant/white victim = 228 executions. (Death Pen-
alty Information Center)
Race of Defendants Executed Race of Victim in Death Penalty Cases
2% Hispanic About 80% of the
m Black - 383 5% — murder victims in
Hispanic 79 y_ cases resulting in an
ae White execution were white,
1 White - 633 79% even though nationally
Other - 24 only 50% of murder
Other Victims generally are
2% white.
Geography Determines Execution Rates
Since 1977, about 90% of all US executions have been carried out in the south. At 102 persons
executed, Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of those executed in the US since 1977. In
Virginia, murder convictions ending in the death penalty are twice as likely in suburban and rural jurisdic-
tions as in urban jurisdictions.
Public Opinion Favors The Alternative
Support for L thout Parole A 2006 Gallup Poll found that re-
spondents slightly favored a sentence
of life without parole (48%) over the
death penalty (47%). Unlike decades
Prefer Death Penalty ago, a sentence of life without parole
No means exactly what it says — convicts
Opinion locked away in prison until they die.
. | 5% A sentence of life in prison allows
Exefer Life Wathout for mistakes to be corrected in any
cases of wrongful conviction.
All graphs courtesy of the Death Penalty Information Center
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
PO Box 4804 e Charlottesville, VA 22905
(434) 960-7779 @ (888) 567-VADP eFax (434) 984-2803
office@VADP.org e www.vadp.or:
