Today's Evansville Courier & Press carries the editorial, "Capital punishment remains expensive and inconsistent."
Ten years ago, following a year-long effort by seven Indiana newspapers, including this one, we came to the conclusion that capital punishment was something of a lottery in Indiana. In fact, the series of news articles was titled, "Death Penalty: Indiana's Other Lottery."
The premise was that in Indiana, there was little consistency in who faced the death penalty and who did not — other than, perhaps, the size and tax base of the county where the murder was committed.
What we learned from that effort was that if a homicide was committed in a small, rural county, the accused was more likely to face life in prison than the death penalty; but if the same crime was committed in a large, urban county, the odds were greater that it could become a capital case.
Fast forward 10 years to the present and we learn that capital punishment is still expensive and it still may be based in great part on where the crime is committed. Indiana currently has five death penalty cases scheduled, and all but one of the crimes occurred in an urban county.
In a special report Sunday by Courier & Press staff writer Mark Wilson, we learned that cost still plays a role in whether some county prosecutors will seek the death penalty. He also reported that some rural counties that do seek the death penalty have been forced to increase taxes for that purpose.
Stephen Owens, Vanderburgh County's chief public defender, told Wilson, "Financially strapped counties can't afford it." And Warrick County's Anthony Long, who defended John Stephenson in his 1997 triple-murder trial, said, "I have always said, the death penalty will eventually end in this country not because of the moral issue, but the sheer economics of it."
And:
If this issue were based on money only, it would make sense for prosecutors — as they do in increasing numbers — to seek life without parole instead of death. Wilson quoted the Legislative Services Agency finding that an average death penalty trial and appeal costs more than $450,000 while the average cost of a life without parole trial averages $42,658.
Unfortunately, there is not much wiggle room for reform. Indiana is a state where public officials fear being accused of going soft on crime, and as we said, it is a state where the death penalty has strong support.
Indeed, other than rising costs, not much has changed in the past 10 years.
Mark Wilson's must-read report on capital costs in Indiana is noted at the link. Related posts are in the cost index.
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