A report in the Polk County (Florida) Lakeland Ledger exam­ined the finan­cial impact of cost­ly cap­i­tal tri­als on states that are strug­gling to make ends meet. The report not­ed that death penal­ty cas­es neg­a­tive­ly impact coun­ty gov­ern­ments because the hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars that is spent annu­al­ly on cap­i­tal cas­es takes away fund­ing from cru­cial indi­gent care pro­grams and oth­er impor­tant ser­vices. As an exam­ple, the paper notes, ​“Take the case of Tavares Wright. The legal bill stands at $200,000 and a 3rd mur­der tri­al for the Lakeland man is pend­ing after the first 2 end­ed in mis­tri­als.” During the ear­ly 1990’s, two cap­i­tal tri­als in Jefferson County, Florida caused sig­nif­i­cant debt for the coun­ty. The tri­als were so expen­sive that they forced sig­nif­i­cant cuts in the coun­ty bud­get, such as a freeze on employ­ee rais­es and a 20% reduc­tion in the library bud­get. The arti­cle notes that coun­ties in Texas, Indiana, Georgia, and else­where face sim­i­lar bud­get chal­lenges. (Lakeland Ledger, December 14, 2003). See Costs.

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