Study: States can't afford death penalty
 

Study: States can't afford death penalty

* Story Highlights
* Study: Death penalty costs can average $10M more per year per state than life terms
* Eleven state legislatures have considered repealing the death penalty this year
* Study relied on U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics data from 33 large urban counties

By Bill Mears
CNN

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At 678, California has the nation's largest death row population, yet the state has not executed anyone in four years.

But it spends more than $130 million a year on its capital punishment system -- housing and prosecuting inmates and coping with an appellate system that has kept some convicted killers waiting for an execution date since the late 1970s.

This is according to a new report that concludes that states are wasting millions on an inefficient death penalty system, diverting scarce funds from other anti-crime and law enforcement programs.

"Thirty-five states still retain the death penalty, but fewer and fewer executions are taking place every year," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "But the overall death row population has remained relatively steady. At a time of budget shortfalls nationwide, the death penalty is turning into an expensive form of life without parole."

His group commissioned the study released Tuesday.

A privately conducted poll of 500 police chiefs released with the report found the death penalty ranked last among their priorities for reducing violent crime. Only 1 percent found it to the best way to achieve that goal. Adding police officers ranked first.

The death row population in 2007, the most-recent statistic available from the Justice Department, was 3,220. It was at 2,250 two decades ago, but the numbers have not grown significantly since 2000.

Forty executions have occurred so far in 2009 in 10 states, all by lethal injection. That total is up from 37 for all of last year, but less than half of the high of 98, from 10 years ago. The Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Ohio recently suspended lethal injections after corrections officials were forced to cancel the execution of Romell Broom last month, when a suitable vein could not be found after two hours of trying.

Virginia plans a Nov. 10 execution for John Allen Muhammad, the so-called Beltway Sniper, convicted of randomly killing 10 people in 2002 with a high-powered rifle.

The Death Penalty Information Center study found that death penalty costs can average $10 million more per year per state than life sentences. Increased costs include higher security needs and guaranteed access to an often lengthy pardon and appellate process. The group is an information resource on capital punishment, and opposes its application as unworkable, inefficient and prone to mistakes.

Florida, where two men have been put to death this year, spends an average of $24 million per execution. That average has remained consistent since 2005, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Many death penalty proponents say part of the problem is that states have added unnecessary, time-consuming delays, and have been reluctant to carry out the death penalty that their own legislatures have enacted. They say states should carry out the wishes of judges and juries that weighed evidence and imposed death on the worst murderers.

Death penalty supporters acknowledge that states outside the South have been reluctant to impose the punishment, even in the face of rising big-city crime rates.

"I think we need to build support for the death penalty and need to impose it more regularly where it is warranted," Kent Scheidegger, legal director of the Sacramento, California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation told CNN earlier this year.

Having the death penalty can offer powerful incentives in plea bargaining, Scheidegger said, and could provide states with large savings in trial and incarceration costs.

His group conducted a study earlier this year comparing murder cases resolved by guilty plea with those that went to trial.

In states with the death penalty, the average county obtained sentences of at least 20 years in almost 51 percent of cases in which the defendant was charged with murder and convicted of murder or voluntary manslaughter. Those sentences were reached through a guilty plea in about 19 percent of the cases.

In states without the death penalty, sentences of at least 20 years were obtained in 40 percent of those cases, but only 5 percent were guilty pleas, about one-quarter of the number in the death penalty states.

That study relied on U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics data from 33 large urban counties.

One example cited by Scheidegger of the plea bargaining effect involved Shaun Earl Arender. He confessed this year to the sexual assault and murder of 6-year-old Hanna Mack in Texas, and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in return for avoiding the death penalty. Texas consistently leads the nation with the most executions.

Eleven state legislatures have considered repealing the death penalty this year. New Mexico has banned it, and Maryland has narrowed the criteria under which it can be used.

Kansas, New Hampshire and the U.S. military are the only jurisdictions that have death penalty laws but have not conducted any executions since 1976. Lethal injection is used in the vast majority of executions, but electrocution, the gas chamber, hanging and firing squad remain as alternative methods.

All AboutDeath Penalty Information Center



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Is revenge worth it?

The system is INEFFICIENT. Typical government program.

Conviction, single appeal, death.

Less than one year, beginning to end.

Done.

If the states would follow through on the threat made, it would be far cheaper and probably act as a greater deterrent.

Bullets are relatively cheap. A Colombian neck tie would be even cheaper.

Tx has an express line...........woowooo

In Texas, you can call the Fire Department.
They do executions if there are no fire related emergencies that day.

I would be completely supportive of the death penalty if we had a truly just legal system that didn't heavily favor those who can afford the best lawyers. Too many people, at least here in Texas, are being released from prison after being proven innocent.

This I find funny.

...And that will work (meaning it won't kill innocent people) exactly when you can get cops to stop falsifying evidence, and coercing confessions.

Whatever it takes I guess.

I've said it before and I'll say it again... Make violent criminals WORK. Three hots and a cot is not sufficient punishment. Hard, HARD labor... you know, all those jobs us lazy Americans don't want to do. Generate some revenue to cover the cost of incarceration AND employ more guards to oversee the work (keep the peace). Win, fucking win.

Instead, we have two sides... the 'kill em all' and the 'they deserve cable TV' factions with the loudest voices.

This is perhaps the most ridiculous and wasteful thing about our prison system. They do little to actively "rehabilitate" these criminals. They have the option to sit and rot for 10 years, learn all kinds of fun new crime techniques, and then be released back to the streets.

Put them to work, like you said, doing less than desirable jobs. I would even be in favor of allowing them to work funds into a savings account to be accessible once they're released, there is no benefit to society to release criminals with absolutely no money and a felony record. Clean the highways, clean the animal shelters, clean the rivers...there's a thousand things they could be doing to help society, generate revenue and rebuild their "character" and gain a sense of self-worth.

People who presumably won't ever get out of prison can work toward credits to buy smokes, get extra rec time and so on and so forth.

Worried about escape? Put a taser bracelet on them that goes off once they get so many feet away from a base beacon. Simple.

And maybe even learn a skill they can put to use when they get out... or in the LEAST develop a work ethic. I mean, that's why many criminals turn to crime right? To try to bypass the 9-5 grind...

Or earn wages that go to victims... or the inmate's family...

Very good.

Now those are ideas I can agree with.

Just gotta be sure to call them something besides labor camps.

Gulags?

Right on. We all know a kid that you know is going to grow up to be a criminal. Parents beat them, uncle molests them, no guidance, no role models, drug/alcohol use at a very young age, gang affiliation, etc. etc. etc.

Once these kids inevitably grow up and commit a crime we as a society should then step in and say "Hey, you fucked up, we're going to teach you how to be responsible for your mistake." And while they're doing so we're going to offer you a chance at a new start. Learn a trade, develop a work ethic, become socialized, and so on and so forth. Yes, the prison is still a punishment and is in no way like a trip to Six Flags...but they get something out of it besides learning how to be a more efficient criminal.

That's a great idea. We're not talking about large sums of money here because the states obviously can not afford that. But enough so that yes, they are actually working for something.

Yea, plus it would make for funny videos when people do try to run off. "I'm free, I'm free....ZAAAAAPPPPP"

Well you just have to use common sense and be humane here. When its hot they get a shit ton of cold water, you don't work them for 16 hours a day. Common sense shit about how we treat even the lowest members of our society.

Putting criminals to work = WIN!

The taser idea is good, but have you ever see the movie Life with Eddie Murphy? Gun line...

That may work as more and more people grow ignorant of the terms significance.