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A Case for Repealing the Death Penalty

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A Case for Repealing the Death Penalty LIBERTAS INSTITUTE | ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY IN UTAH PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF The High Price of Retribution: A Case for Repealing the Death Penalty SUMMARY In 2015, the Utah Legislature reauthorized the While the death penalty might appeal to our use of the firing squad as a form of capital emotional appetite for justice—or revenge—the punishment. Unfortunately, the debate never reality is that it is not justly administered, the addressed the acceptability of the death risk of executing an innocent is too high, and penalty itself, despite lengthy consideration by it does not serve victims very well. the legislature of a comprehensive package of criminal justice reforms during the same time. Given the low value and high cost of the death penalty, capital punishment does not give This missed opportunity can be corrected. taxpayers much bang for the buck. Instead The legislature should consider abandoning it has become a bloated and bureaucratic the use of capital punishment in favor of life policy that blindly seeks retribution despite without parole. a significant moral, social, and financial cost. As with other government programs, freedom-minded individuals have strong reason to be skeptical of the government’s power and practice of executing people. PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF | THE HIGH PRICE OF RETRIBUTION: A CASE FOR REPEALING THE DEATH PENALTY LIBERTAS INSTITUTE | ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY IN UTAH espite both personal and many wrongful convictions across the big government policy gone wrong. Dprofessional risk, John Adams country. The very real risk of executing passionately defended the British an innocent person is enough The rate of false convictions for soldiers charged with murder to abandon capital punishment death row inmates stands at 4.1%.5 in connection with the Boston altogether. In comparison, the error rate for Massacre. During his remarks to food stamp benefits is a mere 1%.6 the jury, Adams expanded on that This is not a theoretical risk. In 2015, When government can manage a famous doctrine established by for example, the FBI admitted that large welfare system more precisely English jurist William Blackstone: consistently flawed testimony provided and accurately than it does a limited by its agents had overstated—or and infrequent capital punishment It is more important that outright falsified—the accuracy of program, it becomes clear that a innocence should be protected, forensic evidence in 95 percent of reconsideration of the underlying than it is, that guilt be punished; criminal cases that investigators policy is needed. for guilt and crimes are so reviewed from a period spanning frequent in this world, that all of more than two decades.3 The cases What’s the Cost? them cannot be punished.... but included 32 defendants sentenced when innocence itself, is brought to death, 14 of whom had already The Utah Legislature often looks to the bar and condemned, been executed or died in prison. for ways it can squeeze more value especially to die, the subject from each tax dollar by reforming will exclaim, ‘it is immaterial to The Innocence Project has also government programs. This drive for me whether I behave well or ill, reported that 22% of its cases were tax efficiency was a primary impetus for virtue itself is no security.’ closed because of lost or destroyed behind the state’s comprehensive And if such a sentiment as this evidence, and 33 of the convicts they criminal justice reforms in the 2015 should take place in the mind of exonerated through DNA evidence general session. Capital punishment, the subject, there would be an had actually pled guilty to crimes however, has become far more end to all security whatsoever.1 for which they were innocent due expensive than its alternatives and to coercive plea deals.4 These facts thus consumes an outsized share Adams understood that a justice are an unacceptable side effect of a of resources—hardly a prudent use system colored with any desire of scarce resources. for retribution will inevitably catch innocents in its widely cast net, Death penalty cases are much more corrupting the morality of the entire costly than life without parole. In an system. Across the country, many effort to avoid the risk of executing who were not guilty of the crimes an innocent person, these cases for which they were accused and require, as a matter of law, a more convicted have been tragically caught robust and lengthy legal process in that net. at trial with a series of appeals. A 2012 legislative study in Utah Efforts led primarily by the Innocence found that the increased trial costs Project have led to the exoneration of administering the death penalty of at least eight inmates in Utah who were previously given life sentences, and over three hundred inmates around the country have been exonerated post-conviction by DNA evidence.2 Prosecutorial misconduct, faulty forensic evidence, mistaken eyewitness testimony, and coerced confessions have driven PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF | THE HIGH PRICE OF RETRIBUTION: A CASE FOR REPEALING THE DEATH PENALTY LIBERTAS INSTITUTE | ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY IN UTAH made the punishment nearly $1.7 moral culpability, jury costs, and death penalty states are actually million more expensive to taxpayers special housing and confinement consistently higher than in states than the alternative—a conservative requirements for death row inmates. without the death penalty. After estimate, since the study did not take repealing capital punishment, New into account the increased cost of Utah’s numbers are not an anomaly; York, New Jersey, Connecticut, cases where the death penalty was other states have also found the death Illinois, and New Mexico each saw sought but not ultimately imposed. penalty to be costly. In California, their murder rates decline. A National for example, capital punishment Research Council study found that The fiscal estimate includes the is as much as twenty times more there was no credible evidence to following costs:7 expensive than the alternative of life support the deterrent effect of capital without parole, with nearby Idaho punishment.9 Moreover, experts in • $560,000 to the Attorney General’s finding it to be at least 70% more the field do not believe it works; 88 office for post-conviction death expensive. percent of criminologists nationwide penalty processing. do not believe the death penalty is • $25,000 to the courts for law clerk Because our system attempts and jury selection. • $100,800 from the Post-Conviction to provide robust due process Indigent Defense Fund for post- protections for those facing the death A poll of 500 police chiefs conviction defense of offenders penalty in order to avoid executing unable to pay. an innocent person, we now find revealed that the death penalty • $363,000 from the Indigent Capital ourselves with highly bureaucratic, Defense Trust Fund to pay for comprehensive, and increasingly is at the bottom of the list when defense costs (this fund receives costly death penalty cases. The it comes to wise and effective money from local governments). government’s resources are not • $5,000 from public safety for more infinite; each dollar spent on a death forensic testing and processing at spending to fight crime. penalty case is a dollar not spent the State Crime Lab and for forensic expert time. on other necessary public safety • $165,000 for the Department of priorities. This trade-off elicits the an effective deterrent.10 The study Corrections to handle the increased question of whether retribution is concluded that the consensus workload and materials related to worth the expense when it means among criminologists is that the the execution process. devoting fewer taxpayer resources to death penalty does not “add any • $27,700 for the Board of Pardons catching more criminals or preventing significant deterrent effect above and Parole for final case review crime. that of long-term imprisonment.” and hearings. • $460,000 from local governments Some may argue that the death for attorneys, investigators, and A True Public Safety Policy specialists. penalty would work better as a • $9,000 from local governments A national survey of police chiefs deterrent if it were quick and public. for special jailing of potential death found that law enforcement executives However, the constitutional demands penalty offenders. ranked the death penalty last as a of due process prevent this option. way of reducing violent crime, and With scarce resources, it would These costs—compiled in 2012—have rated it as the least cost-effective be better to focus public safety since increased due to rising attorney method for controlling crime.8 When programs on responding to crime fees, the cost of experts, the judicial compared to other public safety and preventing its root causes, rather unpredictability of changing legal priorities, police chiefs would prefer to than pursuing a policy of retribution. standards that prolong legal battles, devote funding to other programs that The high costs of the death penalty lengthy mitigation investigations that have broader impact like community siphon away these dollars, reducing gather comprehensive life records of policing and more training. the overall succes of the criminal the accused to determine if mitigating justice system, and subordinating evidence may have influenced the The death penalty also falls short the safety of future victims to the jury’s appraisal of the accused’s as a deterrent. Murder rates in desire for retribution for past victims. PUBLIC POLICY BRIEF | THE HIGH PRICE OF RETRIBUTION: A CASE FOR REPEALING THE DEATH PENALTY LIBERTAS INSTITUTE | ADVANCING THE CAUSE OF LIBERTY IN UTAH Real Justice for Victims not made any better through state- The religious case against the death sanctioned revenge killings, nor are the penalty spans across denominations. While taxpayers bear a significant loved ones of the victim given comfort Pope Francis has declared the financial cost in capital punishment or closure through the protracted legal Catholic Church’s opposition to the cases, we must not forget the emotional process of the death penalty.
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