Death penalty costs California $184 million a year, study says

[TomCADem]

Source: LA Times

Taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment in California since it was reinstated in 1978, or about $308 million for each of the 13 executions carried out since then, according to a comprehensive analysis of the death penalty's costs.

The examination of state, federal and local expenditures for capital cases, conducted over three years by a senior federal judge and a law professor, estimated that the additional costs of capital trials, enhanced security on death row and legal representation for the condemned adds $184 million to the budget each year.

* * *
Their report traces the legislative and initiative history of the death penalty in California, identifying costs imposed by the expansion of the types of crimes that can lead to a death sentence and the exhaustive appeals guaranteed condemned prisoners.

The authors outline three options for voters to end the current reality of spiraling costs and infrequent executions: fully preserve capital punishment with about $85 million more in funding for courts and lawyers each year; reduce the number of death penalty-eligible crimes for an annual savings of $55 million; or abolish capital punishment and save taxpayers about $1 billion every five or six years.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-adv-death-penalty-costs-20110620,0,3505671.story?track=rss

---

The death penalty should be abolished or at least limit the types of crimes that are subject to the death penalty. Sadly, right wingers will probably seize this study and argue that procedurual due process rights should simply be rolled back.

[Orrex]

1. But how can you put a pricetag on bloodlust and righteous vengeance?

k/r

[primavera]

12. I have a recurrent fantasy...

... that rather than focussing on vengeance, our criminal justice system could be reformed to focus on redemption and atonement. The punishment for doing harm would be to make up for that harm. You rape someone, you have to devote the rest of your life to supporting rape victims, for instance. Okay, I have no idea how one would actually do it, which is why it's a fantasy, but it always sounds very appealing to me.

[loyalsister]

16. Like this?

Executed in 2009...

But perhaps it is a surprise that, after having inflicted so much harm, Skillicorn is now working to help others afflicted by violence. From his cell, he edits a magazine that recently awarded a $5,000 college scholarship to a North Carolina teenager whose sister was murdered—so that the young man can pursue his goal of becoming a cop.

Compassion is written and edited by death row prisoners across the country. Its eight bimonthly pages are filled mostly with Christian- and occasional Islamic-flavored personal essays, poetry, and artwork, all of it submitted and edited by mail. Compassion has 4,500 readers and has doled out over $27,000 in scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 to relatives of murder victims since its start in 2001.

http://motherjones.com/politics/2005/12/killers-compassion

[defendandprotect]

19. Think it's loaded with common sense and intelligence ....

unfortunately, think the last reform of the prison system -- based on rehabilitation

and not punishment -- was during the New Deal -- and think that Alger Hiss had quite

a bit to do with it --

which he appreciated when he was sent to prison --- subsequent to his involvement with

NIXON the supreme HUAC investigator!!

-- and planter of evidence!!



"Beware of those with a strong urge to punish" -- !!

[Jkid]

2. There is a 4th option.

Make those mandatory exhaustive appeals process OPTIONAL. If they don't want to appeal their sentence, that's fine. If they want to that's fine. As long as the condemned have a choice...

[pettypace]

3. 5th choice

if the crime is cut and dry, and the condemned have fully confessed, and the punishment has been signed and sealed by the judge....

Two weeks should be plenty of time.

[Orrex]

4. I suspect that quite a few innocents have suffered through such "cut and dry" rulings

1. Capital punishment is state-sanctioned premeditated murder
2. It is applied unevenly along economic lines
3. It is applied unevenly along racial lines
4. It does not meaningfully serve as a deterrent
5. It is vastly more expensive than life imprisonment
6. It does not allow for correction in event of error

For these reasons, among others, the death penalty should be abolished.

[NYC_SKP]

5. We were more civilized in the seventies.

We've gone downhill since.

I fully agree with you but the rest of America, including some democrats, apparently, are against us.

[robinlynne]

14. A lot of innocent people confess under the right circumstances, remember.

[defendandprotect]

18. Too often the "condemned"'s confessions have been coerced --

evidence planted -- and judges corrupt --


Especially during these days of Drug War high corruption!!

Aren't there strong suggestions now that the Swiss Bank accounts will squeeze

a lot of judges hiding profits from drug war decisions?

[alp227]

6. Michigan hasn't had DP since the 1850s. Why did a lotta other states not get the idea?

Commute all death row inmates to life without parole and get rid of the hassles of the appeals and make room for some wrongfully convicted inmates to be freed.

[EFerrari]

7. Someday California will join civilization and outlaw state sponsored killing.

[provis99]

8. oh? We're banning war and assassinations?

[EFerrari]

9. Technically, we're not supposed to declare war on our own

but as for assassination, that's still a hope, too.

[diane in sf]

10. Just lock them up and throw away the key--let's spend the money on education instead.

[Corruption Winz]

11. I simply never understood this.... how much does a bullet cost?

Whether or not you're in favor of the death penalty is irrelevant. So, someone is accused, then convicted of a crime and sentenced to death. They can appeal and fight for their new trial and what have you. Fine, I get it so far.

So, then they lose. Then...... apparently, we stuff their dead bodies with platinum and diamonds? I know what they do with the money. I know the excuses. My question is... Why? Just kill them if that's what you are to do. Seems like it should be fairly inexpensive.

I'm in favor of sentencing certain individuals to death. However, I don't support the death penalty in the slightest. Tax dollars pay for those executions at too high of a price. The family of the victim, for example, is lead to believe that death would be the right thing. Now, if this was coming from prosecutors actually looking out for some sort of closure, it would be commendable. However, it's not.

They do it to boost their conviction and death penalty stock in hopes of making the prison system more money and using the sadness and anguish of the victims family in order to do it.

[fasttense]

13. It costs a lot to murder your own citizens. n/t

[elocs]

15. Yes, it costs more to kill a person than to imprison them for life.

If it turns out that the person was innocent there's not much that can be done if they've already been executed.

[defendandprotect]

17. It cost every state tens of millions to overturn the ban on capital punishment-!!

"Beware of those with a strong urge to punish" -- !!

Insanity rules!!