Executions Cost Millions More than Life Without Parole
In the comment section following my article The Boston Bomber Should Not be Executed a discussion started regarding the costs of execution versus life without parole (LWOP). I mentioned in a comment that executions cost at least $3 million, way more than what it costs to house an inmate for life without parole.
One reader questioned such an astronomical figure and wanted an explanation of where the money goes. Let me break it down into three sections:
Trial and Pretrial
A Capital Trial costs $1.25 million more than a comparable murder case where the death penalty does not apply:
deathpenalty.org, The High Cost of the Death Penalty
Capital punishment in California, as in every other state, is more expensive than a life imprisonment sentence without the opportunity of parole. These costs are not the result of frivolous appeals but rather the result of Constitutionally mandated safeguards that can be summarized as follows:
- Juries must be given clear guidelines on sentencing, which result in explicit provisions for what constitutes aggravating and mitigating circumstances.
- Defendants must have a dual trial--one to establish guilt or innocence and if guilty a second trial to determine whether or not they would get the death penalty.
- Defendants sentenced to death are granted oversight protection in an automatic appeal to the state supreme court.
Constitutional Safeguards
Since there are few defendants who will plead guilty to a capital charge, virtually every death penalty trial becomes a jury trial with all of the following elements:- a more extensive jury selection procedure
- a four fold increase in the number of motions filed
- a longer, dual trial process
- more investigators and expert testimony
- more lawyers specializing in death penalty litigation
- automatic, mandatory appeals
The above is not theory, it comes out in real life, here are some examples of actual costs:
People v. Scott Peterson, Death Penalty Trial - $3.2 Million Total
People v. Rex Allen Krebs Death Penalty Trial - $2.8 Million Total
People v. Cary Stayner, Death Penalty Trial - $2.368 Million Total
People v. Robert Wigley, Non-Death Penalty Trial - $454,000 Total
Incarceration on Death Row
Now the above costs are just for the trial. Then there is the cost of incarceration. Most death rows involve solitary confinement in a special facility with more security. A lot more. In California for example, taxpayers pay $90,000 more per death row prisoner each year than on prisoners in regular confinement. In 12 years (the average spent on death row) - that's a million simoleans more than housing someone in the general population.
Post Conviction Appeals
During that confinement, another million dollars will be spent on mandatory state supreme court and federal appeals; appellate attorneys fees, state attorney's expenses, costs for experts, witnesses and investigators; court hearings and a second sentencing proceeding; salaries for judges, dozens of judicial personnel, court security, state prosecutors and state Attorney General staff; a other legal costs to file a legal response after a death warrant is signed by the governor. All far in excess of costs for appeals of a sentence of LWOP.
A few seconds on a cheap pocket calculator will quickly add up the costs to be more than 3 million dollars. I was being conservative.
Sometimes I hear the argument that we should just reduce the appeals process down to one appeal. That would still make the cost for death penalty cases to be a few million dollars more than non-death penalty cases and certainly result in more executions of innocent people.
TC Palm, 7 Oct 2012, TC Palm
Mark Elliott, executive director of Floridians to Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said the state's 23 exonerated defendants spent an average of eight years on death row.
"Some awaited execution for almost 20 years before being exonerated and freed. Further limiting or shortening the appeals process virtually guarantees that innocent people will be executed," Elliott said. "As long as innocent men continue to be discovered on our death row, Florida desperately needs more qualified, better funded post-conviction attorneys."
Death penalty proponents can't have it both ways: they cannot say that our system works because so many death row inmates are eventually exonerated and at the same time complain that the appeals process is too long.
As well, Death Penalty proponents lack perspective. Some will argue that it doesn't matter if it costs millions more in death penalty cases, it's important for the victim's family to see justice meted out. The truth is, if you are really interested in helping the murder victim's family, then the first thing we should do is abolish the death penalty altogether. The millions of dollars in savings could be spent on public safety programs (drug and alcohol treatment, child abuse prevention programs, mental health services) and especially attending to the needs of victims' families.
So when we "fry 'em," we also burn the money we could use to reduce future murders and help those who have been impacted by the murder. Me? I care about the victim's family, what about you?
