ervatives | About the 20 Jay Street, Suite 808
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Nncer: ned Death Penalty (718) 801-8949
www.conservativesconcerned.org
A Project of 5 info@conservativesconcerned.org
Wasteful and Inefficient
The alarming cost of the death penalty
Many people believe that the death penalty is more cost-effective than housing
and feeding someone in prison for life. In reality, the death penalty's complexity,
length, and finality drive costs through the roof, making it much more expensive.
Capital punishment is an inefficient, bloated program that has bogged down law
enforcement, delayed justice for victims’ families, and devoured millions of crime-
fighting resources that could save lives and protect the public.
What does the death penalty cost? “I think I could prove
to you that | could put
¢ The truth is that vast majority of the death penalty’s costs never Serheene in the Waldort
appear as line items in any budget. Instead they are buried in a Hotel for 60 to 70 years
thicket of legal proceedings and hours spent by judges, clerks,
prosecutors, and other law enforcement agencies. In the time it
takes to pursue one capital case, law enforcement could investigate,
prosecute, solve, and prevent scores of other crimes.
and feed them three
meals a day cheaper than
we can litigate a single
death penalty case.”
« A New Hampshire study found that one death penalty case took - Sterling Goodspeed,
17 days for jury selection and 36 days for the trial, compared to just former District Attorney,
3.5 days for jury selection and less than a week for the trial in an Wacren County, NY
average non-death penalty first degree murder case. The judge in
the death penalty case spent 53 days working on it. He could have
completed five comparable non-death penalty cases in the same time
period.
¢ More than a dozen states have tried to capture the cost of death
penalty cases and found evidence that they are up to 10 times more
expensive than other comparable cases. In California, a 2011 study
showed death penalty cases are 20 times more expensive. That state
has spent over $4 billion on the death penalty since 1978.
Why does it cost so much?
¢ The death penalty process is more complicated because a life is on
the line. Capital cases involve more lawyers, more witnesses, more
experts, a longer jury selection process, more pre-trial motions, an
entirely separate trial for sentencing, and countless other expenses —
racking up exorbitant costs before a single appeal is even filed.
* Most death penalty trials are found to be significantly flawed and
must be re-done, sometimes more than once, adding to the high cost.
* In most cases where the death penalty is sought, it is never imposed.
And even when it is imposed, it is rarely carried out. Yet taxpayers
are saddled with the death penalty’s extra costs even in cases where the
defendant is not sentenced to death or executed.
Who pays for the death penalty?
* One key study found that the costs of the death penalty are
borne primarily by increasing taxes and cutting services like police
and highway funding, with county budgets bearing the brunt of
the burden.
¢ The burden is even higher on smaller counties. Jasper County, Texas,
raised property taxes by nearly 7% just to pay for a single death
penalty case. Two capital cases forced Jefferson County, Florida, to
freeze employee raises and slash the library budget.
¢ The death penalty diverts resources that could be used to help
homicide survivors heal — including grief and trauma counseling,
scholarships for orphaned children, professional leave to attend court
proceedings, and financial support.
* Police chiefs nationwide rate the death penalty as one of the
most inefficient uses of taxpayer dollars. Surveys show that law
enforcement would prefer adding police or reducing drug abuse.
Can we make the system cheaper?
* Many of the extra costs are legally mandated to reduce the risk of
executing an innocent person. And even these safeguards are not
enough. Over 140 people have been exonerated from death row after
waiting years for the truth to come out. Streamlining the process
would virtually guarantee the execution of an innocent person.
¢ Even states with the fewest protections and a faster process face
exorbitant death penalty costs. In Texas, for example, the death
penalty still costs an average of three times more than 40 years in
prison at maximum security.
“As a police chief, |
find this use of state
resources offensive...
Give a law enforcement
professional like me that
$250 million, and I'll
show you how to reduce
crime. The death penalty
isn't anywhere on my
list.”
- Chief James Abbott,
Police Chief and former
death penalty supporter,
West Orange, NJ
We've learned a lot about the death penalty in the last 30 years. It is a bloated
and expensive system that has bogged down law enforcement, delayed justice for
victims’ families, and squandered millions of crime-fighting dollars. Can we afford
the price?
Conservatives | About the
A project of Equal Justice USA
Concerned | Death Penalty www.conservativesconcerned.org _info@conservativesconcerned.org
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted