Trimming the Budget, Skipping Death Sentences

Published November 06, 2009 @ 07:14AM PT

One county in Mississippi has announced that it won't be seeking the death penalty in upcoming cases because it just doesn't have the money. Slowing death sentences by any means is progress, but this story makes me wonder if prosecutors are cutting fair trials to save a few bucks.

The exorbitant cost of capital cases and executions has caught the attention of the public recently, with a report from the Death Penalty Information Center, an editorial from the New York Times and more columns and comments than I can count.

The cost argument is one I employ often when talking about why the death penalty should be abolished. But it gives me pause to see Hinds County, Mississippi, cut back on scientific experts, investigators and sentence mitigation reports that would be used in a death penalty case. Aren't these resources we as a society should be providing in life without parole cases, as well?

The death penalty costs millions more than life sentences, from trial to execution. The increased cost of housing death row prisoners is unnecessary (California spends $90,000 more per prisoner on death row and just approved a new $400 million death row facility).

But it's important to ensure that the money saved by cutting capital trials goes into resources the system badly needs -- investigators in cases from misdemeanors to serious, violent felonies, lab testing, defense representation, victims services ... I could go on.

The recession argument can be an effective tool against the death penalty and the drug war, but it's a double-edged sword. Cutting resources too broadly from the criminal justice system could mean less justice for everyone.

Photo by zaldylmg

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Comments (1)

This blog really caught my attention and brought forth a question that is probably going unoticed across the country; Are we looking to trim our budgets by also triming the way we fight crime and bring criminals to justice??? I know that in a recession period people and business are doing anything and everything they can to save money for their states, but should we jepordize the effectiveness of a states' ability to punish criminals to help save a budget that shouldn't have been overspent in the first place. I am the first person to comment on this blog.

Posted by rocky dominguez on 11/08/2009 @ 12:22PM PT
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.