Judiciary Exhibit: N Page 1 of 110 Date: 03/31/2021 Submitted By
LA 14-25 State of Nevada Performance Audit Fiscal Costs of the Death Penalty 2014 Legislative Auditor Carson City, Nevada Audit Fiscal Costs of the Death Penalty Highlights Summary Adjudicating death penalty cases takes more time and resources compared to murder cases where Highlights of performance audit report on the the death penalty sentence is not pursued as an option. These cases are more costly because Fiscal Costs of the Death Penalty issued on there are procedural safeguards in place to ensure the sentence is just and free from error. Based December 2. 2014. Legislative Auditor report on our sample of 28 cases and average costs we were able to accumulate, we estimate the death # LA14-25. penalty, from arrest through the end of incarceration, costs about $532,000 more than other murder cases where the death penalty is not sought, (page 10) Background________________ The death penalty in the United States is applied Cost Differential of the Death Penalty almost exclusively for the crime of murder. As $1,400,000 of August 2014. 32 states have laws allowing $1,307,000 $1,200,000 $1,202,000 death as a sentencing option although governors $1,032,000 in Washington and Oregon have issued $1,000,000 moratoriums on executions. $800,000 $775,000 Two U.S. Supreme Court cases significantly $600,000 impacted states’ laws regarding the death $400,000 penalty. Furman v. Georgia in 1972 invalidated death penalty laws because the legal system, as $200,000 it was then structured, allowed for the death $0 penalty to be imposed in an arbitrary manner.
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