[PAA-Discuss] NBC/MSNBC - Video - States weigh staggering cost of death penalty of death pena

[Juli3 at aol.com]

Subject: [StandDown-L] NBC/MSNBC - States weigh staggering cost  of death
penalty of death penalty

>From Richard Dieter:
View the  video clip at:
_http://www.msnbc.http://www.http://www.http://www.mshttp://w_ 
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news#35356343) 

February  12, 2010

"States weigh staggering cost of death penalty of death  penalty," by Mike
Taibbi
Video report by Mike Taibbi

In addition to  a recent DPIC report, news clip cites the Dallas Morning
News' 1992 article,  "Executions cost Texas millions; Study finds it's
cheaper to jail killers for  life," by Christy Hoppe. The text of her
article is below:
- - - -  -
From:
The Dallas Morning News
Published: March 8,  1992

Executions cost Texas millions
Study finds it's cheaper to jail  killers for life

Christy Hoppe Austin Bureau of The Dallas Morning News  

AUSTIN -- By the time the appeals are over -- if they ever are -- it  will
take the combined efforts of county, state and federal governments, plus  
the
fuel of about $4 million in taxpayer dollars, to execute Robert  Excell
White. Almost 18 years ago, Mr. White entered the Hilltop Grocery  near
Princeton to rob and kill 73-year-old Preston Broyles. Twice,  separate
Collin County juries sentenced him to death.

As unworthy as  those juries found him, Mr. White and his crime are still
costing  Texas.

Mr. White's case represents the death penalty system at its most  costly and
inefficient. His protracted case was extended again in 1988 when  he won a
new trial because statements he unknowingly made to a psychiatrist  were 
used
against him.

But winning a new trial is not unusual in  capital cases. Nationally, almost
half the initial convictions in capital  cases are overturned on appeal. In
Texas, it's a little easier on  prosecutors: Only one of every four
convictions are reversed, according to  the U.S. Department of Justice.

A study by The Dallas Morning News found  that even when those verdicts are
upheld, it's cheaper to lock someone up for  life than to try to execute 
him.

The study shows that trials and appeals  take 7.5 years and cost taxpayers 
an
average $2.3 million per case in Texas.  To imprison someone in a single 
cell
at the highest security level for 40  years costs about $750,000.

If the Texas system sounds expensive, it's  actually tightfisted compared
with that of other states. A 1982 study in New  York estimated that the 
first
level of appeals alone would cost $1.8 million,  and a 1988 series in The
Miami Herald showed that the death penalty costs  Florida $3.1 million per
execution.

"There's some things that a modern  American city and state have got to
have,'said Dallas lawyer Vincent Perini,  chairman of the Texas Bar
Association'Association'<WBR>s committee on representation for  death row i
to have police and fire and public safety  protection. You have to have a
criminal justice system. You do not have to  have a death penalty.'

Strictly optional

Indeed, 14 states have no  death penalty. Of the 36 states that do, 19 have
not executed anyone since  the penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1976. In the past  decade, New York and Kansas considered enacting 
a
death statute but decided  against it in light of studies that showed that 
it
would be too  costly.

"The death penalty in criminal justice is kind of a luxury item.  It's an
add-on; it's an optional item when you buy your criminal justice  vehicle,'
Mr. Perini said.

But the "frill' is far from gone in  Texas.

With 351 condemned men and four women, Texas leads the nation in  both death
row population and the number of executions -- 46 since 1977,  which 
includes
five in 1991 and four already this year.

Assistant  Attorney General Bob Walt, one of six state lawyers who work to
see that the  death penalty is carried out, said the problem is the delaying
tactics used  by defense attorneys on appeal.

But even with the expense, the death  penalty is worth the effort, Mr. Walt
said.

"We have no shortage of  violent characters in this state,' he said. "The
death penalty is something  Texans want. They think the death penalty is an
appropriate  punishment.'

Other supporters of capital punishment said they are  re-thinking it.

Janie Wilson of VOTERS, Victims Organized to Ensure  Rights and Safety, said
she and other victim advocates, except in rare  circumstances, support life
without parole over the death penalty.

Ms.  Wilson said the death penalty is such a long, difficult process that  
the
nightmare is re-lived by the family of murder victims at each appeal,  each
hearing, each scheduled execution date.

"The pain and the anger  and the heartache and the frustrations and the
fears, they have to be dealt  with every time,' Ms. Wilson said.

At great cost

She said the  death penalty is not cost-effective, and survivors are not
lobbying for it as  they are for life without parole.

"They want justice; they don't  necessarily want retribution,"They want j
said.

Norman Kinne,  Dallas County's first assistant district attorney, said he
also thinks that a  new law passed by state lawmakers last year might be
adequate for many  cases.

The statute orders a capital murderer who receives a life sentence  to serve
a minimum of 35 years before being considered for parole.

"I  think even though I'm a firm believer in the death penalty, I also
understand  what the cost is,' Mr. Kinne said.

"If you can be satisfied with putting  a person in the penitentiary for the
rest of his life . . . I think maybe we  have to be satisfied with that as
opposed to spending $1 million to try and  get them executed,' Mr. Kinne
said.

Eleven of the 36 states with the  death penalty have life-without-Eleven
statutes. Six others, like Texas,  require a minimum time served.

Until the law passed last year, a person  charged with capital murder could
get a life sentence that allowed for parole  in 15 years, and because of
that, Mr. Kinne said, he sought the death penalty  in a number of cases.

Dallas County in fiscal 1991 spent an average of  $112,400 for the defense 
of
five capital murder offenders. If the costs of  the court personnel,
prosecutors, investigators and juries are added in, the  average price tag
for each capital murder trial hits $265,640, according to  The News' study.

Then Dallas pays for the state appeals before it moves  into federal court 
--
an average of $64,000 each.

"I think we could  use (the money) better for additional penitentiary space,
rehabilitation  efforts, drug rehabilitation, education, especially devote a
lot of attention  to juveniles,' Mr. Kinne said.

Question of priorities

The expense  in money and resources is also becoming a national focus, said
James Exum,  chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, who is
chairman of an  American Bar Association committee studying the costs and
added burdens of  the death penalty. The study should be completed within a
year.

"All  social policies ultimately come down to a question of cost because
you're  dealing with alternatives,you're  dealing

"I think those of us  involved in prosecuting these cases have this uneasy
notion that gosh, these  cases are very time-consuming and very troublesome
and take a lot of  resources that might be better spent on other kinds of
crimes -- like drug  offenses, rapes and other kinds of assaults.'

The cost of appeals and  their toll on the system have even been noted by
U.S. Chief Justice William  Rehnquist, who has suggested a limit on the
federal appeals filed on behalf  of some condemned inmates.

At the same time, the Supreme Court has  repeatedly ruled that "death is
different' and requires extraordinary  exercises in constitutional
guarantees.

"Delay is inherent,' said Mr.  Walt of the attorney general's office. But he
also criticized the federally  financed resource centers for "dilatory'
tactics on behalf of the  condemned.

There are 16 resource centers nationwide, including one in  Texas, which
recruit lawyers and otherwise conduct appeals on behalf of death  row
inmates.

Because death penalty appeals are so time-consuming and  the pay is
relatively small, out-of-state attorneys were found to handle 35  percent of
Texas' death appeals.

"There are legitimate issues to be  litigated out there, and we have no
interest in railroading somebody into  getting executed,' Mr. Walt said. 
"You
obviously represent your client, but  to me, (resource center lawyers) . . .
are representing a cause, and that is  to abolish the death penalty.'

Robert McGlasson, a lawyer with the Texas  Resource Center, said he is bent
on defending clients from often overzealous  prosecution.

"Prosecutors in this state, perhaps more so than other  states, view the
death penalty as a political tool for advancement in the  system,' he said.

Dire consequences

Mr. McGlasson suggested that  trying to speed up the system to reduce
expenses could cost innocent  lives.

Indeed, the discovery of new evidence or scrutiny of new media has  led to
freedom for three one-time Texas death row inmates since  1989.

Randall Dale Adams, Clarence Brandley and John Skelton had their  sentences
overturned -- all at least seven years after their convictions.  Prosecutors
in all three cases determined that there was insufficient  evidence to 
re-try
them on the capital murder charges.

Mr. McGlasson  also said the Texas capital murder statute has been used
against people who  hail from a broken social system.

"If you open the doors to Texas' death  row, you find a lot of mentally ill,
mentally handicapped, mentally retarded,  child abused, poor-background kind
of people,' he said.

State prison  officials said that six death row inmates are considered
severely mentally  retarded. In addition to those inmates, eight condemned
inmates were 17 or  younger at the time of their crimes. Forty inmates  were
teen-agers.

The U.S. law that allows the executions of juveniles  is equaled only in 
five
other countries: Bangladesh, Pakistan, Barbados, Iran  and Iraq.

Texas law allows the death penalty to be used against someone  convicted of
murdering police, fire or prison officials, multiple murders or  murder
during the commission of another felony.

In February, Johnny  Frank Garrett was executed. He was 17 at the time he
raped and murdered an  Amarillo nun, Sister Tedea Benz.

Gov. Ann Richards granted a 30-day  reprieve for Mr. Garrett in January 
after
a personal appeal from Pope John  Paul II to stop the execution.

During a hearing by the parole board,  which took 25 minutes to decide
against commuting his death sentence,  evidence was offered that showed that
Mr. Garrett endured beatings, sodomy  and forced participation in
pornographic films when he was a child. Several  psychiatrists testified 
that
they believed that Mr. Garrett was mentally  ill.

`Lynch-mob mentality'

Amarillo Bishop Leroy T. Matthiesen  fought Mr. Garrett's execution and said
he was surprised by "a violent  brutality in this state.'

"I think we're in a lynch-mob mentality in  Texas at the moment because the
death penalty is being handed out right and  left,' Bishop Matthiesen said.

Regarding Mr. Garrett, the bishop said: "I  think our criminal justice 
system
has gone awry. We're not dealing with the  problem, except to kill the
product of it.'

Rick Halperin, a board  director of Amnesty International USA and a Southern
Methodist University  professor, criticized state politicians who he said 
are
willing to liberally  spend money on the death penalty but penny-pinch when
it comes to child-abuse  programs.

"It's not a coincidence that this state ranks dead last in the  amount of
money it allots to social services. Yet Texas has got 400 people  either 
dead
or on death row. Millions, millions just wasted trying to get rid  of 400
people. It's just sick,' Mr. Halperin said.

Mr. Walt said that  the abused and the mentally retarded lose their rights 
to
public sympathy  once a jury finds that they are criminally responsible for
their  acts.

"We're losing sight of what these people did. Don't ever forget  that there
was a live person with human feelings that this person snuffed out  for his
own greed or whatever,' Mr. Walt said.

"There are victims out  there, and this man robbed that family of something
that is very precious.  And that is permanent.'

Mr. Walt said he opposes life without parole  because he believes that it
would be "cruel and unusual' punishment to give  someone no hope of
improvement or freedom.

"I think death is a more  humane sentence. I think the people on death row
would say that. Some of  these people give up their appeals because they
don't want to sit on death  row for 17 years,' he said.

Although life without parole might save  millions of dollars, it would 
create
a nightmare in the prison system, said  House Corrections Committee Chairman
Allen Hightower,  D-Huntsville.

"From a correctional practice standpoint, if someone needs  to go to prison
for life, I'm for gassing them,' Mr. Hightower  said.

"The end result is that with no chance or hope of getting out no  matter how
you behave . . . there's no reason not to stab a guard and no  reason not to
kill or rape another inmate.'

Mr. Hightower said he  favors limiting appeals from what he calls the absurd
to enough to save an  innocent man.

"Will we ever convict a person in this state that's not  guilty? Sure. We've
done it before, and we'll do it again,' he said. "But our  criminal justice
system is the fairest system in the world.

"We may be  one of the most punitive, but we're also the fairest.
- - - - -  
CHART/ILLUS. (DMN) THE COST OF APPEALING CAPITAL MURDER PHOTOS  1.Robert
Excell White 2.(Associated Press) Robert Excell White, shown in a  1987 file
photo, robbed and killed a 73-year-old man at a grocery store  near
Princeton. He was sentenced to death twice, and his appeals are expected  to
cost Texas taxpayers $4 million.



 
 
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