States Consider Dropping Death Penalty

By Jeralyn, Section Death Penalty
Posted on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 10:01:00 AM EST
Tags: capital punishment (all tags)

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What do Maryland, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire have in common these days? All are considering bills to abolish the death penalty. Why? It's too expensive.

In five other states, Virginia, Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Vermont lawmakers are considering releasing non-violent inmates early or cutting their sentences to cut expenses.

The cost of taking a death penalty case to trial is enormous. [More...]

Capital cases are expensive because the trials tend to take longer, they typically require more lawyers and more costly expert witnesses, and they are far more likely to lead to multiple appeals.

It costs only $25,000 a year or so to incarcerate an inmate. For an execution, it varies by jurisdiction, but here are some examples of what a state spends to prosecute a single death case:

*Maryland: $37 million per execution
*Federal court: $620,932 (8 times more than a lwop trial)
*Washington State: $650,000

Florida alone would save $51 million a year if it switched to prosecuting life without parole as opposed to seeking the death penalty.

Bottom line: On an average, a death penalty case costs 48% more than a case seeking life imprisonment without parole.

Add to that the high number of convictions that are reversed on appeal, the lack of research showing the death penalty serves to deter crime, and the toll it takes on the families of the victims, jurors and defendants' families, and it seems a no-brainer.

Also weigh in the risk that an innocent person may be executed. So, what's the death penalty good for? An eye for an eye? As Gandhi said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

It's time to switch from being tough on crime to being smart on crime. Eliminating the death penalty would be a huge start in the right direction.

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States Consider Dropping Death Penalty | 47 comments (47 topical)

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Ohio and Wisconsin mulling early releases too. (5.00 / 1) (#1)
by Ben Masel on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 06:59:51 AM EST

Gov. Doyle's budget speech called for releasing 1,000, and restoring good time. Probation on most misdemeanors would become unsupervised (no pee tests) to free up probation officers for their newly released felons.

Sanity (5.00 / 1) (#9)
by joanneleon on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 09:23:27 AM EST

is refreshing.

Do you think that cost was the final straw? I wonder if the question about what pro-life really means, when conservatives and religious folk generally oppose abortion but support the death penalty and wars, and liberals generally support abortion but oppose the death penalty and wars, has had an impact too. But cost gave people a concrete, non-ideological reason to work with. When someone takes a lot of widespread, complex data and boils it down to coherent information, what a great service that is. It's amazing that it doesn't happen more often.

I'm all for accountability but I strongly support the Innocence Project. Every time someone is executed or released after being proven innocent, it bothers the heck out of me for a long time to think of what they went through. Contrasting it with the Bush admin., corrupt financial professionals, etc.... it's hard to find words to express that feeling.

Too expensive? (2.00 / 1) (#4)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 08:18:18 AM EST

How much is too much to save the life of someone killed by a murderer sentenced to life in prison?

what do you mean? (none / 0) (#6)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 09:07:52 AM EST

as in, someone killed by that murderer while in prison?


Yes (2.00 / 1) (#7)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 09:21:06 AM EST

That person killing another inmate, a guard, other prison staff, outside civilians during an escape, or hiring outsiders to kill witnesses.

How many more innocent deaths are you willing to accept to get rid of the death penalty? It is the one sure way to prevent repeat offenses.


well if it was another inmate (none / 0) (#10)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 09:54:38 AM EST

in for murder, then that would be okay, ya think? saves money, and prevents a murderer from doing it again, both! yeah!

Of course, proponents of the death penalty are saying that the criminal can never be changed from being a murderer...and can never find forgiveness ...that is one of the reasons the catholic church opposes the death penalty...the elimination of the possibility of redemption and forgiveness and change...


BTW (none / 0) (#11)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 10:58:51 AM EST

What do you think is the appropriate sentence for a person who commits murder while serving life without parole?


BTW (5.00 / 2) (#13)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:06:05 AM EST

What do you think is the appropriate penalty for the state when it executes an innocent person?


The same (none / 0) (#16)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:53:30 AM EST

as a state that imprisons an innocent person.


: We are the state, so if an innocent person (5.00 / 1) (#21)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:26:20 PM EST

is executed, or murdered, than we should all be executed as well so we don't do it again, by your logic.

Death is never an appropriate sentence. (5.00 / 1) (#19)
by Thanin on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:17:38 PM EST

the rack! (none / 0) (#12)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:02:45 AM EST

or alternatively, draw and quarter.


Serious (none / 0) (#17)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:56:28 AM EST

The lack of a serioua answer to how to deal with persons that commit murder while serving life without parole is telling.


How about dealing with barbaric (5.00 / 1) (#25)
by jondee on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:06:10 PM EST

prison conditions that keep some nations from extraditing prisoners to the U.S?

There's an old rule of thumb you guys never get: treat people like sub-humans and they'll act like sub-humans.


: Of course in right wing (5.00 / 1) (#27)
by jondee on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:10:37 PM EST

world treating someone like a sub-human has always been acknowledged as valid teaching device.

How many times have (5.00 / 1) (#26)
by eric on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:09:37 PM EST

you ever heard of someone committing a murder while serving life? Seriously, you are trying to argue that the death penalty is preferred to life in prison because of the risk that the murderer will re-offend? What a stretch.


Abdul's always been concerned (5.00 / 1) (#29)
by jondee on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:13:37 PM EST

about the well being and rehabilitation of non-violrnt prisoners: anyone who's posted here for awhile knows that.

It's practically an obsession with the guy.


Um, are you kidding? (none / 0) (#30)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:40:55 PM EST

Granted, prison murders are much reduced these days, 4/100,000/year in 2002 vs 54/100,00/year in 1980 but they certainly do occur.

Here's a murderer who murdered again in prison.

Last year a jury in Freehold, New Jersey found that Ambrose Harris had acted in self-defense when he brutally beat and killed his fellow death-row inmate Robert "Mudman" Simon in 1999. But there are no innocents in this story, save the victims of Simon and Harris.
Simon [...] was convicted in 1974 for killing his girlfriend after she refused to cooperate in her gang rape by Simon's friends and fellow Warlocks.
While serving time for that heinous murder at Graterford Prison in Philadelphia, he knifed and killed another inmate in 1984.
Despite his two killings, Simon was paroled.
Only 11 weeks later, Simon murdered police Sgt. Ippolito (Lee) Gonzalez in Gloucester County, New Jersey. [...] His third murder earned him the death penalty.
Harris was on death row for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 22-year-old Kristen Huggins in 1992.
Just out of prison {paroled for a previous crime] in 1992 after serving 13 years, Harris and a woman companion attacked Huggins, a graphic artist on her way to do a job. Harris placed her in the trunk of her car and they drove off. Harris later sodomized her, shot her in the head and buried her.
According to news accounts, when Harris was sentenced in 1996, he was asked if he had anything to say to the victims' parents, who were in attendance. Harris turned and suggested that Huggins' parents apologize to him. His outburst caused the judge to remove him from the courtroom.

Somewhat (none / 0) (#31)
by eric on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:03:17 PM EST

dated information, but this article suggests that the murder rate in prison is lower than most cities. And these are ALL prisoners, not just murderers. If you were to only count the murderers who murder again, I am sure the number would be very, very low.

So yes, I do think that it is very rare for a murderer to re-offend in prison.


OK. (none / 0) (#32)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:11:40 PM EST

According to one study, between 1800 and the mid-80's (iirc) when the study was done, 23 innocents have been executed.

Do you think there were more than 23 murders by convicted but unexecuted murderers during that time, or less?


: It is better (none / 0) (#36)
by MrConservative on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:31:47 PM EST

to let a thousand guilty men go free than to execute one innocent.

Rarity (none / 0) (#44)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 04:03:54 PM EST

Rarity is not the issue. The question is what to do with lifers that murder again.


I know of at least five (none / 0) (#43)
by Abdul Abulbul Amir on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 04:00:45 PM EST

I know of at least five who have been murdered by lifers.

The question remains, what should happen to those that commit additional murders while serving life. If you feel a an additional life sentence is the way to go, why not say so?


: Why don't you say (none / 0) (#45)
by MrConservative on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 05:08:46 PM EST

that you support the death penalty?

: How many innocent men (none / 0) (#46)
by MrConservative on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 05:12:36 PM EST

do we have to execute until you're done with your death penalty fixation? There's a huge difference between a sane society coldly murdering an innocent and an insane nutjob doing the same.
If you asking whether or not I oppose the death penalty for people who murder in prison, absolutely, no question.

Frakly (none / 0) (#37)
by MrConservative on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:34:04 PM EST

I think you're a fascist.

Plenty of nations do just fine without the death penalty. It hasn't caused any serious problems in their prison system.


Where's Texas? (none / 0) (#2)
by Saul on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 07:28:31 AM EST

The worst of all.

research re history of death penalty (none / 0) (#3)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 07:55:21 AM EST

In 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason. Later, Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished the death penalty for all crimes.
(via the Death Penalty Information Center)

Minnesota outlawed it in 1911.

Only 14 out of 50 have abolished it. (and the District)

Kind of shocking, really.

Funny (none / 0) (#20)
by jbindc on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:24:25 PM EST

In 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason. Later, Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished the death penalty for all crimes.

Which is funny because treason is a federal crime, so Michigan courts would still never impose the death penalty. And since the death penalty is allowed under federal law, you can have trials in Rhode Island and Wisconsin federal court where the death penalty is handed out as a sentence.


well this has happened (none / 0) (#22)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:28:46 PM EST

where someone has been tried in federal court instead so the death penalty can be applied. Most recent case comes to mind is the Dru Sbodin case in NoDak.


Dru (none / 0) (#28)
by eric on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:12:57 PM EST

Sjodin, yep, they tried that guy in North Dakota instead of Minnesota for this reason. The murder happened in Minnesota, probably.


No not quite (5.00 / 1) (#33)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:21:01 PM EST

No death penalty in NoDak or MN.

Dru was kidnapped in near Fargo ND. Her body was later found in MN.

Since neither state had death penalty, they decided to try it in federal court, with the death penalty applicable, because of the kidnapping across state lines thing.


Aha (none / 0) (#35)
by eric on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:30:06 PM EST

I stand corrected. I knew there was something going on there with venue shopping.

I suppose they will ship him to Terre Haute. Barbarians.


the perp (none / 0) (#38)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:56:07 PM EST

was a barbarian also, though. He had been released in May 2003 after serving 23 years for stabbing and kidnapping a woman. Had previously pled to rape.

Six months later, he raped and murdered Dru.

You're right. Alfonso Rodriguez Jr has indeed already been shipped to Terra Haute.


Yeah, I know the (none / 0) (#39)
by eric on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:59:22 PM EST

background. I actually know the lawyer that represented the family in a related civil suit. It is settled.


the short time between his release (none / 0) (#40)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 03:22:00 PM EST

and his next crime.....shows a fatally flawed sick man, heh?

yeah I figured you might be familiar...you're a fellow Gopher, right?


Yep (none / 0) (#41)
by eric on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 03:37:44 PM EST

I live in Minneapolis.


: Why-no-na, here (none / 0) (#42)
by DFLer on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 03:52:43 PM EST

Your Maryland DP cost graphic (none / 0) (#5)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 09:03:50 AM EST

says total cost is 1.1 million - but that 862K of that is prison costs.

Wouldn't that 862K be spent regardless of whether it was a DP case? The murderer would certainly still be in prison regardless of whether he was sentenced to death...

iow, the true cost of a DP case in Maryland is 1.1 million - the 862K = or ~240K, not 1.1 million.

I think it costs much more to maintain (none / 0) (#8)
by sj on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 09:21:33 AM EST

a prisoner in death row than it does to maintain that prisoner as part of the regular inmate population.


Probably so, but also, now that I look at it, (none / 0) (#14)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:27:53 AM EST

the graph says "Death Sentance NOT Sought" so maybe Jeralyn put up the wrong graph? Weird.


Part of the cost (none / 0) (#18)
by jbindc on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 12:12:39 PM EST

I believe, encompasses the multiple appeals a death row inmate gets. Someone with more expertise can certainly correct me on this.


: I believe that's the 83K for "appeals" (none / 0) (#23)
by sarcastic unnamed one on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:01:02 PM EST

in the graphic.

The $25K incarceration cost is an average of (none / 0) (#24)
by JSN on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 01:05:44 PM EST

all custody types. Maximum security is more expensive but I don't
have the most recent distribution of costs by custody type.

By the way some lifers are held in minimum and medium security facilities. The big costs for lifers is when they need 24 x 7 nursing/hospice care during their terminal illness.

It seems to me that the trial and appeal costs given in the graphic are far too low.

I don't think the cost argument normally would be given much weight most DP debates tend to be about religious/moral issues and the problem of wrongful convictions. Now the economy has capsized and corrections has become such a big budget item the cost argument is getting more attention.


: trial costs (none / 0) (#47)
by diogenes on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 10:03:16 PM EST

However, some murder cases plead guilty to avoid death penalty, saving LOADS of money. If the maximum penalty is life, then everyone would always go to trial all the time.
Plus the cost of interminable appeals--twenty years later witnesses "recant" (but are never charged with perjury) and it is usually too late to have a retrial (evidence grows cold, etc) but infinite appeals anyway. That happens with life sentence inmates too but you don't see it here on this website because of the focus on death cases.

Wanna CUt Costs (none / 0) (#15)
by squeaky on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 11:43:53 AM EST

Legalize all drugs. Start with legalizing MJ and shift the other non violent drug offenses to the medical system where it belongs. Treatment and counseling rather than jail and parole.

Mississippi (none / 0) (#34)
by MrConservative on Wed Feb 25, 2009 at 02:26:20 PM EST

I am pretty certain that Mississippi recently passed a law offering parole to certain non-violent felons who had served 25% of their sentence, rather than the case in the pass where everyone had to serve an absurd 85% (why even have parole if it takes that long, for Christ sake). Of course, I have no idea what crimes they considered non-violent enough to make the list.