| COSTS OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Note: this study was done in the 1990s and was based on interviews with prosecutors, judges, and defense attorneys in Arizona. Many people assume that it costs less to execute than imprison accused murderers, and even when told that it costs more, they think that it is mostly because of the cost of appeals. Both of these assumptions are wrong. Meanwhile, opponents of the DP, with increasing success, promote �Life Without Parole� (LWOP) laws as a much less costly alternative to the DP. Issues relating to the cost of the DP have arisen in a number of different states as economic problems mount and states look for ways to save money. There are a whole range of issues related to cost, from local cost of trials to state costs of maintaining a DP system to the cost of the work load placed on appeals courts by DP cases. In order to simplify the analysis somewhat, this discussion will focus on the state level (leaving aside the Federal DP and the military DP) and the whole cost of having a DP system versus not having a DP system. How much does a life sentence cost? It is relatively easy to roughly estimate the average cost of a life sentence, although this will vary a lot from state to state with the construction cost of prisons, the salaries of prison guards, etc. The median age of defendants sentenced to death is about 28 and the life expectancy of a long term prisoner is in the 60s -lower than the general population because most prisoners are poor and less healthy, the stress of prison life, poor nutrition and medical care, etc. Thus on the average a life sentence would entail about forty years of incarceration. Nationwide estimates on the total cost of providing a �prison bed� are around $25,000 a year. About forty years at about $25,000 a year equals about a million dollars. Attorney and court costs where there is no DP law will be relatively low because non-capital trials are much cheaper, many cases would be plea bargained instead of going to trial, and very few cases would be appealed. Thus attorney and court costs would average about one to two hundred thousand dollars a year for a total cost of about $1.2 million. How much does the DP cost? The usual estimate for the cost of DP cases is roughly $2-5 million per completed case, which also varies a lot by state and locality. The starting point for understanding how this breaks down is examination of the components of a single case - based on a low-end hypothetical estimate this totals about $1.5 million. Pre-trial: $150,000 (most paid by local cities and or counties). This includes the cost of a more thorough police investigation (because DP cases go to trial instead of settling), legal preparation by prosecutors for indictment, motions, trial, and sentencing hearing, including experts, research, consulting, lab work, actual testimony at trial, etc. Trial: $600,000 (most paid by counties and states). This includes the cost of bifurcated trials (court costs for judge and staff), the cost of juries, prosecution trial costs (many hours of attorney work), witness and evidence costs (depositions, testimony, travel/lodging, etc.), and costs of defense attorneys. State post-conviction appeals process: $200,000 (most paid by counties and states). Federal post-conviction appeals process: $300,000 (partly paid by federal courts but also substantial local costs for preparation by prosecution and defense attorneys). Pre-execution imprisonment: $250,000 (on average about 10 years @ $25,000 year (paid by states). Costs of execution: negligible (execution workers, often prison lockdown, chemicals, publicity, etc.). Thus an average case from investigation through execution would cost about $1.5 million if the case moved through the system without problems, like being overturned on appeal and requiring a retrial - about 40% of post-Furman cases have been overturned on appeal, and most have been retried as DP cases, which adds the cost of another trial and another round of appeals, or about $1 million. System Costs There are also other "system costs" involved that are not apparent in looking at the cost of a single (average) case - costs associated with having vs. not having a DP system. Having a DP system increases the costs of many other homicide cases. The 8000+ post-Furman death sentences are result of about 25,000 DP trials � there is about a 30% conviction and upheld death sent rate - some defendants are acquitted at trial, some are convicted but not sentenced to death, and some receive retrials after their cases are overturned on appeal. If acquitted at trial, there is no cost of appeals. If convicted but sentenced to prison instead of death, there will be some access to appeals because there was a trial (rather than a plea bargain). If system costs are averaged into the total cost of cases that end in execution, the cost per finished case (execution) would be at least $3 million, and this a low estimate. To summarize: The cost of 25,000 trials followed by nearly that many appeals means that death penalty systems have cost somewhere around $20 billion extra since the revival of the DP. The largest portion of the cost of the DP are paid by localities (cities and counties) for pre-trial and trial expenses. A smaller proportion is paid by states and the federal government (mostly for appeals). Further, much of the cost of DP cases is paid up front (especially the local costs) while the cost of imprisonment is spread over a number of years. The Cost of the DP as a cause of other problems The high cost of the DP also leads to other serious problems - attempts to cut costs lead to the problems of inadequate representation, discrimination against poor defendants (who are disproportionately minority), mistakes, the ineffectiveness of the appeals process, etc. The high cost is also part of the reason why 20 counties in the US have generated a majority of post-Furman executions - they are the jurisdictions that can afford the process. Is the DP worth the extra expense? Cost-benefit analysis, asking what the public gets in return for expenditures, is often applied to public policies. What does the public get in return for the billions of dollars spent of the DP? Incapacitation? Recidivism is rare among homicide offenders, and prison incapacitates almost as well as execution. Deterrence? Research indicates that there is no deterrent effect of executions, and it is likely that executions actually increase homicide rates (this would negate any incapacitation effect as well). "Justice" or "Closure" for victims/survivors? Less than 5% of homicides are prosecuted as DP cases and it would be extremely expensive to increase this very much � so are victims/survivors in the other 95% of homicide cases devalued � plus, the other 95% are disproportionately minority-victim cases. Copyright � 2009 Ernie Thomson. All rights reserved. email: [email protected] |