Even Texans Re-Thinking Death Penalty Due to Cost

"States weigh staggering cost of death penalty of death penalty," is the title of an MSNBC web-only report by Mike Taibbi of NBC News.  You can watch the video at the link; a commercial may stream first.

Here's a transcript of the report:

Mike Taibbi:
When four men were indicted for the August 22nd shooting of Houston surgeon Jorge Mario Gonzalez, it seemed like a clear cut death penalty case, a murder during an alleged botched kidnapping for ransom.

Travis Koehn, Austin County, Texas District Attorney:
But the main thing we need to decide is what justice calls for here.

Taibbi:
But Justice that includes the death penalty is more expensive than it’s ever been.  In one Texas study, an average of more than $2.3 million in all costs over the lifespan of each case; three times the cost of a non-death case.  Defense attorneys in the Gonzales murder case know that.  ("Executions cost Texas millions: Study finds it's cheaper to jail killers for life," by Christy Hoppe, Dallas Morning News report of March 8, 1992 cited.)

Katherine Scardino, Defense Attorney:
That's actually one of the things defense lawyers use now to try to get death off the table.

Taibbi:
And it’s a key reason why 11 of the remaining 35 death penalty states have seriously considered repeal legislation, New Mexico the only state making it official.

Richard Dieter, Death Penalty Information Center:
Where there have been studies, they’re unanimous.  There’s not one study that says the death penalty is cheaper than incarceration.

Taibbi:
Incarceration for life that is, without possibility of parole.  That’s what escaped rapist Brian Nichols wanted in a plea deal for shooting four people, including a judge in 2005.  But though the prosecutor went for the death penalty, a jury did not.  And three years and more than three million in trial costs later, Nichols was sentenced to life without parole.

In fact, capital cases have become so expensive to prosecute and defend they’ve been likened to hurricanes, tornadoes, and other natural disasters,  with their staggering costs.  There was no federal disaster relief when Jasper County Texas spent one and a half million dollars pursuing the death penalty for the three men convicted in the dragging death of James Byrd.  The taxpayers picked up the tab with two years of a 6.7% tax hike.
 
Even in Texas more people are seeing life without parole as a much less expensive and still punitive option.

Carolyn Chennault, Texas Resident:
Maybe someone imprisoned for the remainder of their life would be much more of a sentence than put to death and it’s over.

Taibbi:
That’s an option the district attorney could now consider in a county the recession has not spared.  Prison for life for one-third the price of a death sentence that might never be carried out.

Mike Taibbi, Bellville Texas.

Related posts are in the cost index.