The death penalty evokes strong emotions in those for and against it. The arguments have been thoroughly debated: justice, vengeance, retribution, eye-for-an-eye, we’re better than that, the state should not be in the killing business, it’s inhuman, it’s cruel and unusual, we’re the only civilized country, it is not deterrent, it doesn’t achieve anything, it keeps wounds open.
But we are living in very difficult times. The economy is performing at its worst level in decades – and some might say that this recession is the worst of a lifetime. The costs are piling up and the revenue stream is drying up. The state is facing a budget deficit of close to $1bn this year and over $8bn for the next two years. That’s an astronomical sum. And while Gov. Rell says that cuts are coming, and while taxpayers suggest ways to cut costs, and while legislators debate decriminalizing less than an ounce of marijuana, I have yet to see anyone opine that we should cut one expense in the judicial system: abolish the death penalty.
Abolition has been proposed in CT before: most notably prior to Michael Ross’ desire to be executed. It really hasn’t come up since. We all know, however, that if there is one thing that supersedes politicians’ desire to be “tough on crime”, it would money.
The costs of the death penalty are also well documented and not insignificant. Housing a death row inmate costs approximately $100k a year: in CT, there are currently 10 people on death row. That’s $1 million a year. Each of those death row inmates has either an appeal or a petition for writ of habeas corpus pending. That means lawyers for both the State and the defense, usually two or more on each side. There are also several capital felony prosecutions in progress throughout the state. That means additional costs: lawyers (again), investigators, experts. It means months and years of preparation and legislation. It means that the attention of those lawyers is drawn away from run-of-the-mill cases, which means more lawyers need to be hired to meet Constitutional standards of representation.
Perhaps the good folks at the OLR can do a cost study and inform the Governor of the potential savings in cost if the death penalty is abolished.
At the very least, the time is ripe for a moratorium on the death penalty.
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