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Life on the Row :: Death Penalty Discussion :: Debate the Death Penalty :: Cost of the death penalty VS life without parole

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Topic: Cost of the death penalty VS life without parole (Read 16,383 times)

tennessegirl23
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Cost of the death penalty VS life without parole
« Thread Started on Mar 24, 2008, 11:06pm »

One of the most debatable questions about the death penalty is the cost of the inmates on death row compared to the cost of inmates serving life without parole (LWOP). After doing some research I found serveral sites talking about the cost, one said the death penalty cost more and the other said LWOP cost more. Then there was one part from the victim's family members stating that they would rather have the convicted murders put in prison for life w/o parole due to the cost taxpayers are paying could be used for something more like counseling for the victim's families. What do you think about the information I have brought to everyones attention?

Source #1 http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/newsanddev.php?scid=7

NEW VOICES: Murder Victims’ Families Testify in Maryland on the Death Penalty
Family members of murder victims testified before the Maryland Senate Judiciary Committee on March 6 about the painful toll the death penalty has taken on their lives, stating that the resources spent on seeking death sentences could be better used elsewhere. "I've watched too many families go through this to make me believe the system will ever work," said Kathy Garcia, whose nephew was murdered 20 years ago. She continued, "The death penalty divides families at the very time they need each other the most." Other family members of murdered victims agreed, suggesting that the money spent on the death penalty could be better used in providing counseling and other support to survivors. Vicki Schieber, whose daughter was murdered in Philadelphia in 1998, told the committee that years of death penalty appeals are excruciating to families. "The system is just too painful," she said.

Source # 2 www.deathpenaltyinfo.org

Costs of the Death Penalty

Information on Costs of the Death Penalty From DPIC
Financial Facts
Cost News and Developments - Current Year
Cost News and Developments - Previous Years

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Information on Costs of the Death Penalty From DPIC

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"Costs of the Death Penalty and Related Issues" Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, before the Colorado Senate Judiciary Committee. (February 7, 2007) This is a comprehensive description of the death penalty process and related costs.

Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, regarding the costs of the death penalty and related issues before the New York State Assembly Standing Committees on Codes, Judiciary, and Correction. (January 25, 2005)
Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center, regarding the costs of the death penalty before the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Criminal Justice. (March 27, 2003)

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. (April 18, 2002)

DPIC report: Millions Misspent: What Politicians Don't Say About the High Costs of the Death Penalty (updated version, 1994)

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Financial Facts About the Death Penalty
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Report to Washington State Bar Association regarding costs

At the trial level, death penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the prosecution and defense over the cost of trying the same case as an aggravated murder without the death penalty and costs of $47,000 to $70,000 for court personnel.

On direct appeal, the cost of appellate defense averages $100,000 more in death penalty cases, than in non-death penalty murder cases.

Personal restraint petitions filed in death penalty cases on average cost an additional$137,000 in public defense costs.
(FINAL REPORT OF THE DEATH PENALTY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC DEFENSE, Washington State Bar Association, December 2006).

Death Penalty has Cost New Jersey Taxpayers $253 Million
A New Jersey Policy Perspectives report concluded that the state's death penalty has cost taxpayers $253 million since 1983, a figure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state utilized a sentence of life without parole instead of death. The study examined the costs of death penalty cases to prosecutor offices, public defender offices, courts, and correctional facilities. The report's authors said that the cost estimate is "very conservative" because other significant costs uniquely associated with the death penalty were not available. "From a strictly financial perspective, it is hard to reach a conclusion other than this: New Jersey taxpayers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quarter billion dollars on a capital punishment system that has executed no one," the report concluded. Since 1982, there have been 197 capital trials in New Jersey and 60 death sentences, of which 50 were reversed. There have been no executions, and 10 men are housed on the state's death row. Michael Murphy, former Morris County prosecutor, remarked: "If you were to ask me how $11 million a year could best protect the people of New Jersey, I would tell you by giving the law enforcement community more resources. I'm not interested in hypotheticals or abstractions, I want the tools for law enforcement to do their job, and $11 million can buy a lot of tools." (See Newsday, Nov. 21, 2005; also Press Release, New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Nov. 21, 2005). Read the Executive Summary. Read the full report. Read the NJADP Press Release.

Study Finds Death penalty Costly, Ineffective

A new report released by the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury recommended changes to the state's costly death penalty and called into question its effectiveness in preventing crime. The Office of Research noted that it lacked sufficient data to accurately account for the total cost of capital trials, stating that because cost and time records were not maintained, the Office of Research was unable to determine the total, comprehensive cost of the death penalty in Tennessee." Although noting that, "no reliable data exists concerning the cost of prosecution or defense of first-degree murder cases in Tennessee," the report concluded that capital murder trials are longer and more expensive at every step compared to other murder trials. In fact, the available data indicated that in capital trials, taxpayers pay half again as much as murder cases in which prosecutors seek prison terms rather than the death penalty. Findings in the report include the following:

Death penalty trials cost an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment.
Tennessee District Attorneys General are not consistent in their pursuit of the death penalty.
Surveys and interviews of district attorneys indicate that some prosecutors "use the death penalty as a 'bargaining chip' to secure plea bargains for lesser sentences."
Previous research provides no clear indication whether the death penalty acts as a method of crime prevention.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals reversed 29 percent of capital cases on direct appeal.
Although any traumatic trial may cause stress and pain for jurors, the victims' family, and the defendant's family, the pressure may be at its peak during death penalty trials. (July 2004)

Read the The Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Research's Report, "Tennessee's Death Penalty: Costs and Consequences."

Study Concludes Death Penalty is Costly Policy
In its review of death penalty expenses, the State of Kansas concluded that capital cases are 70% more expensive than comparable non-death penalty cases. The study counted death penalty case costs through to execution and found that the median death penalty case costs $1.26 million. Non-death penalty cases were counted through to the end of incarceration and were found to have a median cost of $740,000. For death penalty cases, the pre-trial and trial level expenses were the most expensive part, 49% of the total cost. The costs of appeals were 29% of the total expense, and the incarceration and execution costs accounted for the remaining 22%. In comparison to non-death penalty cases, the following findings were revealed:

The investigation costs for death-sentence cases were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases.
The trial costs for death cases were about 16 times greater than for non-death cases ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case).
The appeal costs for death cases were 21 times greater.
The costs of carrying out (i.e. incarceration and/or execution) a death sentence were about half the costs of carrying out a non-death sentence in a comparable case.
Trials involving a death sentence averaged 34 days, including jury selection; non-death trials averaged about 9 days.
(Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K-GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections) Read DPIC's Summary of the Kansas Cost Report.

Death Penalty Trials Very Costly Relative to County Budgets
Capital cases burden county budgets with large unexpected costs, according to a report released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, "The Budgetary Repercussions of Capital Convictions," by Katherine Baicker. Counties manage these high costs by decreasing funding for highways and police and by increasing taxes. The report estimates that between 1982-1997 the extra cost of capital trials was $1.6 billion. (NBER Working Paper No. w8382, Issued in July 2001) Read the abstract.

Total cost of Indiana's death penalty is 38% greater than the total cost of life without parole sentences
A study by Indiana's Criminal Law Study Commission found this to be true, assuming that 20% of death sentences are overturned and resentenced to life. (Indiana Criminal Law Study Commission, "Commission Report on Capital Sentencing," January 10, 2002)

North Carolina Spends More per Execution than on a Non-death Penalty Murder Case
The most comprehensive death penalty study in the country found that the death penalty costs North Carolina $2.16 million more per execution than the a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of life imprisonment (. On a national basis, these figures translate to an extra cost of over $1 billion spent since 1976 on the death penalty. ("The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina" Duke University, May 1993)

Florida Spends Millions Extra per Year on Death Penalty
Florida would save $51 million each year by punishing 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 an approximate cost of $24 million for each execution. This finding takes into account the relatively few inmates who are actually executed, as well as 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. ("The High Price of Killing Killers," Palm Beach Post, January 4, 2000)

Florida Spent Average of $3.2 Million per Execution from 1973 to 1988
During that time period, Florida spent an estimated $57 million on the death penalty to achieve 18 executions. ("Bottom Line: Life in Prison One-Sixth as Expensive," Miami Herald, July 10, 1988)

California Spends Millions More on Capital Cases
California spends $90 Million dollars annually above and beyond the ordinary costs of the justice system on capital cases. $78 million of that total is incurred at the trial level (Sacramento Bee, March 18, 1988). In January 2003, despite a budge deficit, California Governor Gray Davis proposed building a new $220 million state of the art death row. ("San Quentin Debate: Death Row vs. Bay Views, New York Times, December 18, 2004).

The California Death Penalty System Costs Taxpayers More than $114 Million a Year
According to state and federal records obtained by The Los Angeles Times, maintaining the California death penalty system costs taxpayers more than $114 million a year beyond the cost of simply keeping the convicts locked up for life. This figure does not count the millions more spent on court costs to prosecute capital cases. The Times concluded that Californians and federal taxpayers have paid more than a quarter of a billion dollars for each of the state's 11 executions, and that it costs $90,000 more a year to house one inmate on death row, where each person has a private cell and extra guards, than in general prison population. This additional cost per prisoner adds up to $57.5 million in annual spending. ("Death Row Often Means a Long Life," Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2005).

1988 Cost Study by the Sacramento Bee
A study done by the Sacramento Bee (March 28, 1988) suggests that California would save $90 million per year if it were to abolish the death penalty. $78 million of these expenses are occurred at the trial level and would not be reduced by shortening appeals. ("CLOSING DEATH ROW WOULD SAVE STATE $90 MILLION A YEAR," Sacramento Bee, March 28, 1988).

Texas death penalty cases cost more than non-capital cases
That is about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest security level for 40 years. ("Executions Cost Texas Millions," Dallas Morning News, March 8, 1992)

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Read the DPIC Report: Millions Misspent: What Politicians Don't Say About the Death Penalty (updated version, 1994)

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• NY - The estimated costs for New York’s death penalty, which was reinstated in 1995: $160 million, or approximately $23 million for each person sentenced to death, with no executions likely for many years. (The Times Union, Sept. 22, 2003)
• NE - Because of one death penalty case in Nebraska, the Madison County Public Defender’s Office doesn’t have time to meet with their regular clients and prepare adequate defenses, in violation of their code of ethics. Attorneys are withdrawing from all new cases to which they are appointed. (Lincoln Journal Star, Sept. 22, 2003)
• OH - In Ohio, the low pay for death penalty representation coupled with the pressure of the cases has meant a shortage of qualified attorneys: In Mahoning County, only 4 lawyers qualify for lead death penalty work; in Trumbull County, 2; in Columbiana County, only 1. (Youngstown Vindicator, Sept. 22, 2003)

Source # 3 www.prodeathpenalty.com

D. THE COST OF LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE VS THE DEATH PENALTY

Many opponents present, as fact, that the cost of the death penalty is so expensive (at least $2 million per case?), that we must choose life without parole ("LWOP") at a cost of $1 million for 50 years. Predictably, these pronouncements may be entirely false. JFA estimates that LWOP cases will cost $1.2 million - $3.6 million more than equivalent death penalty cases.

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Cost of Life Without Parole: Cases
Equivalent To Death Penalty Cases Cost of Death Penalty Cases
1. $34,200/year (1) for 50 years (2), at
a 2% (3) annual cost increase, plus
$75,000 (4) for trial & appeals = $3.01 million $60,000/year (1) for 6 years (5), at
a 2% (3) annual cost increase, plus
$1.5 million (4) for trial & appeals = $1.88 million
2. Same, except 3% (3) = $4.04 million Same, except 3% (3) = $1.89 million
3. Same, except 4% (3) = $5.53 million Same, except 4% (3) = $1.91 million

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There is no question that the up front costs of the death penalty are significantly higher than for equivalent LWOP cases. There also appears to be no question that, over time, equivalent LWOP cases are much more expensive - from $1.2 to $3.6 million - than death penalty cases. Opponents ludicrously claim that the death penalty costs, over time, 3-10 times more than LWOP.

I hope this is helpful to everyone and gives everyone an insite on things. It still has me questioning the cost, which one is more accurate?

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Re: Cost of the death penalty VS life without paro
« Reply #1 on Mar 27, 2008, 7:38pm »

first of all, everything claiming that the death penalty costs more doesn't bother with the facts, so it's bogus. they lump in all murder cases and divide it by the number executed, which has no relevance to the subject whatsoever.
a dp trial does cost more than a non dp trial. aside from the extra investigation and expert witnesses, death penalty trials are bifurcated, and two trials cost more than one.
then, we get to the real cost. the myriad of frivolous appeals is what drives the cost up. if we did things properly, and limited it to one trip through the courts, the execution would cost less than the cost of keeping the trash locked up for ten years

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tennessegirl23
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Re: Cost of the death penalty VS life without paro
« Reply #2 on Mar 31, 2008, 2:57am »

iamjumbo,
Hello, I have read many of your post and you seem to be a very educated man and I'm glad for your insite on this and I agree with most everything you said except for two things, one I don't feel as if the dp is right, but that's just me and another whole subject. Then second I feel as if we stop the "whole" appeal process that some innocent people could be put to death. I do think that the LONG appeal process that the system has now is to much and all it does do is buy the inmates time on the taxpayer's money, but sometimes there is new evidence 10 years later and if it wasn't for appeals then those people would have been put to death for somrthing they didn't do or they really actually done something smaller. I do think that a lot of the cost for death row inmates is the cost of the appeals but what do you think about the actual cost of the exacution?

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Re: Cost of the death penalty VS life without paro
« Reply #3 on Mar 31, 2008, 12:21pm »

Quote:

well thank you. i have been on both sides of the argument. i spent the first half of my life believing as you do. i was as adamantly anti dp as i am now pro.
the whole issue with the cost argument, as i said, is that those who try to claim that the dp costs more than lwop convolute numbers, adding irrelevant numbers and subtracting relevant numbers.
the actual cost of the execution itself would probably be a couple of grand. the li drugs for an execution in texas cost $86. then, you have to add in salary of everyone involved, and the disposal of the body. i'd say that it would be two grand tops.
at a bare minimum, though, $23,000 a year is the lowest figure that i have seen for housing a prisoner. that does NOT take into account medical care for anything other than a cold or something. a safe bet would be a MINIMUM of a million dollars over forty years. since the average cost of housing a prisoner is around $45,000, you can safely figure that for most states, it is two million to keep a fool there for forty years.
since the advent of dna, there is no reason for "new" evidence to surface ten years down the road. about the only thing that is going to come along that far down would be witnesses retracting statements or something, which is NOT new evidence. two years is plenty of time if the individual is FACTUALLY innocent.

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Re: Cost of the death penalty VS life without paro
« Reply #4 on Mar 31, 2008, 12:29pm »

Why should cost be a factor at all? The only factor I care about -- and I think a substantial number of Americans feel similarly -- is JUSTICE.

Susan

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