65° CLEAR, [ CAPITAL-PUNISHMENT COST ]
Capital-Punishment Cost: Death Penalty and Taxes
Last Modified: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at 7:34 a.m.
The high cost of death-penalty cases becomes ever harder to justify as recession threatens basic law-enforcement funding.
Last month, dozens of probation officers and about 100 positions at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement were cut, with others barely escaping the state budget blade. Counties are trimming sheriff's personnel. Many jails are overcrowded.
All of this occurs as violent crime in Florida persists at rates higher than the national averages.
In such a climate, the state should rethink its pursuit of the "ultimate punishment."
Because of heightened constitutional requirements, death-penalty cases are far more expensive than murder trials in which life without parole is sought.
Differentials vary, but last year a major study in Maryland concluded that in that state "an average capital-eligible case resulting in a death sentence will cost approximately $3 million, $1.9 million more than a case where the death penalty was not sought."
ADVOCATES: PRICE TAG MOOT
Advocates of execution say, with considerable justification, that a price tag cannot be placed on justice.
To be sure, many death-penalty cases (including some pending in our region) involve heinous crimes that demand severe punishment.
But the No. 1 concern must be public safety, and studies suggest the death penalty contributes little to it.
Florida's budget hole continues to grow, more cuts lie ahead and no one can be sure public safety budgets won't suffer.
CRIME DETERRENCE
Well-staffed crime labs, good police patrols, probation officers who aren't overloaded with cases - these are known strategies for deterring crime and keeping the public safe. Yet these jobs become ever more threatened as Florida and the nation make difficult budget choices.
Because of the tens of millions of dollars spent adjudicating them, death-penalty cases may soon be seen as detracting from - not contributing to - a safer society.
Public defenders and other legal advocates, in Florida and around the country, recommend that a death-penalty moratorium be considered.
We second that call. Desperate times call for sound, cost-effective investments in public safety. The death penalty simply does not fit that description.
This story appeared in print on page A8
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Comments
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February 24, 2009 3:30:39 am
RE: Link
As is typically the case with politicians, they are too stupid to see the forest for the trees. The answer is very simple. If you are convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death, you get one appeal within the first year and then sentece is carried out immediately at the end of that year. Hey Tallahassee - Keep it simple stupid.
February 24, 2009 3:43:40 am
How many appeals would you want for you or your son??? and how many if you were innocent???
February 24, 2009 5:52:40 am
Two thoughts...
1.) It's expensive because we've allowed it to get expensive. If a person is found guilty and sentenced to death, I agree 100% with Defiant that they get one year and have many posts that state that position.
2.) The one item that I would be willing to compromise on is this. If the death penalty is no longer an option and the perp would have been sentenced to death, the perp should get life in prison in the most undesirable circumstances possible. Put him in a tent, in the middle of a field, with three meals all of them the same, every day, two slices of bologna, two slices of bread, lettuce for salad, no salad dressing, applesauce and water they get themselves out of a hand pump well. No napkin, no plasticware, no salt, no pepper, no seasoning, no butter, no sugar, no TV, no books, no music, no newspaper, no interaction with the outside world.
February 24, 2009 6:14:56 am
I take it you're a "pure punishment" kinda guy?
February 24, 2009 6:36:46 am
Not at all. I'm actually more about forgiveness than punishment. BUT, If you are sentenced to death, the charge has to be 1st degree murder, and typically it's premeditated. If you plan to commit murder; you think about it, plan it, walk through it in your own mind or with accomplices, even in the heat of the moment (i.e. man walks in on his wife with another man and goes to his car to get a gun and then goes back into the house), the perp needs to be punished in the harshest of ways. The most harsh is a death penalty. If that is no longer an option per the author and are sentenced to life in prison, they should be "dead" to society. Hopefully, that would be a deterance, but I don't think it would be. That's at least one solution. There haven't been a whole lot of other ideas offered on the forums...you have any?
February 24, 2009 7:23:59 am
Thanks for that input.
My stance on capital punishment is based on the premise that I have little confidence in the processes that determine guilt. It is because of the huge potential for error in the justice system that I think extended periods of appeal are warranted.Much of that extended period could be reduced if, for instance, the prosecuting attorney's were not the ones allowed to either grant or deny things like DNA testing or the introduction of other new evidence. I think that sort of thing would be better done by disinterested parties who will suffer neither embarrassment of office nor damage to a personal political career, should the conviction be overturned.
When we are talking about the state killing someone to achieve justice, we'd better be really sure we are not killing an innocent person and turning ourselves into collective murderers. The problem with capital punishment is that it cannot be undone. Such a thing to my mind, requires maximum caution and that's what the lengthy appeal process is about.
February 24, 2009 10:04:20 am
I go along with a lot of what bear has to say, but I feel if someone is sentenced to life they should have to make their own way! (Thus the term Prison not Picnic) An island for starters with access to growing their own food and resources, given a few head of a herding stock to raise on their own. IF all of the heard dies there will be no fur or meat. If the crops are not attended to there will be no food source. They should be self-supportive with in their own confines. If they try to escape, death...if they want to screw up their own lives why should we as tax payers support their stupid decisions, we need to educate our children... not support our prisons. Capitol punishment should be imposed on select few and as slamb said on the above a reasonable doubt. Also, I feel it should be quick as bear stated with in a year of sentencing. The hanging of Sadam was quick without years of paroleâ?¦this was in the best interest of the state, country and in this case world!
OOOHHhh, yawwwnnn...strrreeeeccchhh, what a lovely dream.
Wow, slamb 114 post since Friday...chatty arent we???
February 24, 2009 2:25:56 pm
Every scientific poll I have seen shows the vast majority of Americans are for capital punishment. Why are we continuously trying to thwart the will of the people with bleeding heart liberal stances and endless appeals designed solely to aid and abet this thwarting?
Now we have a position that the pursuance of capital punishemt is too expensive so we should stop it. The self fulfilling propaganda of capital punishment being "too expensive" is that the expense is a direct result of constant and delaying legal maneuvering that panders to the left.
February 24, 2009 2:36:26 pm
No, it panders to the CONSTITUTION! You know, that document that is the very heart of America and what it stands for?
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