Articles about Cost

Are capital cases really more expensive? This was the question for the recent hearing of the Death Penalty Task Force Study Commission. And the answer was a resounding 'yes.'

Strange quote of the month? "We're running out of death row inmates", said the Clark County, Indiana Prosecutor Steven Stewart. Stewart is referring to the fact that death sentences in Indiana are at record lows! Read about it here:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-in-indianaexecutions,0,4511935...

Check out this article in the Huffington Post about why, in this time of economic crisis, we should be letting go of the costly death penalty. The author is Death Penalty Information Center Executive Director Richard Dieter. There's already a lively debate in the comments on the article. Be sure to leave a comment in support if you agree with the article!

In the last Equal Justice Edition, I talked about the bankrupting of the Georgia public defense program due to one high-profile capital case. Though the Nichols case is over, the system is still a wreck. One capital defendant in Georgia, Jamie Ryan Weis, has been without a lawyer for eight months as he awaits trial. Weis had counsel earlier, but the state ran out of money to pay the lawyers. With the help of Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Weis has sued for representation.

From the very beginning, the case of Brian Nichols was notable. On trial for rape, Nichols broke free from his guard at the Fulton County, courthouse, stole a gun, and tore through the building. By the time he was recaptured, he had shot and killed the judge in his trial, a court reporter, a deputy, and a U.S. Customs agent.

Hall County, Georgia is facing the prospect of its first capital trial in nine years. There's no way of knowing just how much a death penalty trial will cost a county, but estimates suggest at least four times the amount of a non-death penalty trial. A recent article in the Gainesville Times examined the issues of cost and the death penalty and found that costs for jurors and bailiffs alone will be more than seven times the normal cost. Many additional factors contribute to the final cost.

The California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, formed in 2004 to study all aspects of the criminal justice system in California, released a 107 page report on the death penalty last

Read this excellent opinion piece by Cara H. Drinan, assistant professor of law at the Catholic University of America in Washington. Excerpt:

"Georgia and the other states that are expeditiously trying to clear their death row calendars could learn a lot from the elected officials in New Jersey. Rather than acting in haste, lawmakers in these states should call for a moratorium on the death penalty so that its costs and benefits can be evaluated in a circumspect manner."