CRM/LAW C165 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Letter Case, Urban Institute
30 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Cost
• the cost argument
o death penalty issues come and go
o mid-1990s – abolitionist thought this was the winning argument
o superseded by innocence
o post-2008 recession, cost has reemerged
▪ prop 34 supported almost entirely on cost grounds loses 52-48%
o possible to be pro death penalty, but anti on cost grounds
• the cost of killing
o CA – early 1990s – capital trial = 6x non-capital murder trial
▪ 1998 – FL also 6x
▪ spending $12 million/year reimbursing counties for costs of trials
o NC – 1993 – capital cases = $2.16 million > non-capital
• applied nationally
o ~ $82 million/year
o ~ $500 million 1976-1994
• the burden on localities
o can bankrupt counties
o can raise taxes
o diversion of budgets
▪ from hiring police officers
▪ from building prisons
• preventing early release of prisoners
▪ other prevention
• e.g. drug rehab
• the cost conundrum
o politicians appearing tough on crime, while misallocating resources?
o a consequence of Zimring’s paradox
▪ the kind of DP we have is necessarily slow and costly (contrast
China)
• 2008 Urban Institute Cost Study
o study of DP in MD, 1978-1999
o death notice adds $670,000 to @ case
o death sentence adds $1.2 million to @ case
o death sentence in total adds $1.9 million to @ case
• summary of total costs
o 1978-1999: $186 million
o 56 death sentences
o 106 non-death sentences in cases in which DP sought
• costs in detail
o average MD life case
▪ $250,000 adjudication + $870,000 prison = $1.1 million
o average MD death case w/ no death sentence
▪ $850,000 adjudication + $950,000 prison = $1.8 million
o average MD death sentence case
▪ $1.7 million adjudication + $1.3 million prison = $3 million
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