| Show Death Penalty Penal tv Hardly a Effective Cost-Effective Measure Rone Tempest Los Angeles Times When prison guards strapped nervous time three-time killer Donald Beardslee to a gurney and administered a alethal alethal alethal lethal injection just after midnight here on Jan 19 it was the first California execution execution execution exe exe- cution in more than three years Beardslee who in in 1981 brutally murdered two young San Francisco area women after he was paroled from a Missouri prison on another murder conviction waited 21 years for his day of reckon reckon- ing He was 61 and had been on death row longer than the entire life span of one of his victims In the quarter century since Californians voted overwhelmingly overwhelmingly over over- overwhelmingly to restore the death penalty county prosecutors prosecutors prosecutors prose prose- and juries have put more condemned murderers on death row in this state than in any other except Texas Despite the publics public's willingness willingness willingness will will- to hand out death sentences California is one of the more hesitant among the 38 capital punishment states to use the penalty causing some to to question if the enormous ongoing cost of capital punishment is worth the relatively few executions it produces California has inmates on death row about 20 percent percent per per- percent cent of the nations nation's total But the state has accounted for only 1 percent of the nations nation's executions 11 deaths or since 1978 when the death penalty was restored What we are paying for forat forat forat at such great cost said nf of UJ u Berkeley law professor Frank is essentially our own ambivalence about capital capital capital capi capi- tal punishment We try to maintain the apparatus of state killing and another apparatus that almost guarantees guarantees guarantees guaran guaran- tees that it wont won't happen The public pays for both sides According to state and federal federal federal fed fed- eral records obtained by the Los Angeles Times maintaining maintaining maintaining main main- the California death penalty system costs taxpayers ers more than million a year beyond the cost of simply simply simply sim sim- ply keeping the convicts locked up for life and not counting the millions more in incourt incourt incourt court costs needed to prose prose- cute capital cases and hold post-conviction post hearings instate instate in instate state and federal courts With 11 executions spread over 27 years on a per-exe- per cution basis California and federal taxpayers have paid more than a quarter of a billion billion bil bil- billion bil- bil lion dollars for each life taken at state hands Capital punishment advocates advocates advocates cates argue that the death penalty saves money by eliminating state costs of housing the executed inmates The rare California executions do produce some savings for the state For PY hart Zhu d J u to age 77 the average life expectancy for California males it would have cost the state an additional 2 million to house him But these kinds of savings make only a small dent in the overall sums needed to maintain the tem Former California Attorney General Dan Lungren now a Republican member of Congress from Sacramento accuses capital punishment opponents of conducting a war of attrition attrition attrition tion against the death penalty penal penal- ty jacking up the cost and greatly prolonging appeals with the intent of making the process too expensive to keep up I dont don't think society ought to be forced to give up the death penalty just because of actions by those who have been ratcheting up the costs said Lungren who helped write a 1996 federal law attempting to speed up capital case appeals It is very difficult to calculate the human costs or even the economic economic economic eco eco- costs of those who are not killed because of the deterrence of capital punish punish- ment Because of the long longor or c r f tha th ri 1 A Pi l f t 1 In UA r J V. V J s. s u. u between sentencing and execution execution execution exe exe- cution in California averages nearly 20 years As a result there is a general graying of the population on death row According to Department of Corrections statistics death row inmates are older than 50 42 are older than 60 Prison records show that California death row inmates are far more likely to die of natural causes than they are areat areat areat at the hands of the execution execution- er Since 1978 during the same period that 11 inmates were put to death 28 died naturally 12 committed suicide suicide suicide sui sui- sui- sui cide and two were killed in incidents on the San Quentin exercise yard The leading cause of death on death row row George said is old age Good Pull Quote In an interview George estimated that the states state's highest court spends about 20 percent of its time and resources on death penalty cases alone Federal habeas corpus appeals in death cases are so expensive that the Circuit assigns a US U.S. district judge just to review the budgets budgets budgets bud bud- gets of each capital case For the present activists kr h and the flue death AV u no penalty are unhappy We put all these resources into litigation where we end up killing one person every two or three years said Laurence What if just a small portion of the money we spent on these cases went for the prevention prevention prevention pre pre- pre pre- of child abuse From my experience this would have done far more to prevent prevent prevent pre pre- vent murders than anything we have done with capital punishment Possibly as a result of the See Penalty continued on page 10 Death Penalties conti continued from page 6 high costs and bottleneck on death row there has been a marked decline in death sentences in recent years In 1999 juries imposed 42 death sentences In 2004 the number dropped to nine But the numbers fluctuate and new admissions to California's death j row i con continue Icon con to to exceed By many 1 iy times esth the number i- i of executions University of Southern California law professor Michael J. J Brennan said he and a counsel co-counsel Los Angeles lawyer Phillip A. A Trevino have represented two California death row inmates on federal appeals for forthe forthe forthe the last 12 years for which Brennan estimates estimates estimates esti esti- mates they have been paid Brennan said that when he debates the issue with death penalty supporters he no longer bothers with the ethical and moral issues I had a conversation with someone recently who admitted to being sort of a are re redneck o on 00 the death penalty Brennan said recently But when I said Lets talk about how much it costs I suddenly got his attention |
