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1 lip 2008 · The greatest costs associated with the death penalty occur prior to and during trial, not in post-conviction proceedings. Even if all post-conviction proceedings (appeals) were abolished, the death penalty would still be more expensive than alternative sentences.
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At the trial level, death-penalty cases are estimated to generate roughly $470,000 in additional costs to the prosecution and defense over the cost of trying the same case as an aggravated murder without the death penalty and costs of $47,000 to $70,000 for court personnel.
The high price of the death penalty is often most keenly felt in those counties responsible for both the prosecution and defense of capital defendants. A single trial can mean near bankruptcy, tax increases, and the laying off of vital personnel.
1 lis 1994 · Complex pre-trial motions, lengthy jury selections, and expenses for expert witnesses are all likely to add to the costs in death penalty cases. The irreversibility of the death sentence requires courts to follow heightened due process in the preparation and course of the trial.
As indicated in Table I below, for those cases in which the death penalty is sought (BOP cases), the average total cost per case—using only the data that we were able to collect—is approximately $161,000, while the average total for non-death penalty sought (non-BOP) cases is nearly $51,000 per case. Thus, the estimated average
9 Chart I-1 contains the median estimated trial costs of each category of cases listed in the previous note (p. 13). Because the death penalty is sought in both of the first two categories, their costs were averaged to get $348,000 (p. 13). The median cost for cases in which the death penalty was not sought is $32,000 (p. 13). Subtracting ...
death penalty trials were six times more expensive, costing on average $592,500. Meanwhile, the Bee estimated that it cost $93,000 to try a non-death penalty case. Adjusting for inflation to 2007 dollars, the cost of each death penalty trial would be approximately $1 million compared with $163,000 for each non-death penalty trial.vi
