COSTS: Capital Cases in Nevada Much More Expensive Than Non-Death Penalty

A recent study com­mis­sioned by the Nevada leg­is­la­ture found that the aver­age death penal­ty case costs a half mil­lion dol­lars more than a case in which the death penal­ty is not sought. The Legislative Auditor esti­mat­ed the cost of a mur­der tri­al in which the death penal­ty was sought cost $1.03 to $1.3 mil­lion, where­as cas­es with­out the death penal­ty cost $775,000. The audi­tor sum­ma­rized the study’s find­ings, say­ing, ​“Adjudicating death penal­ty cas­es takes more time and resources com­pared to mur­der cas­es where the death penal­ty sen­tence is not pur­sued as an option. These cas­es are more cost­ly because there are pro­ce­dur­al safe­guards in place to ensure the sen­tence is just and free from error.” The study not­ed that the extra costs of a death penal­ty tri­al were still incurred even in cas­es where a jury chose a less­er sen­tence, with those cas­es cost­ing $1.2 mil­lion. See Chart below.

The study was based on a sam­ple of Nevada mur­der cas­es and include the costs of incar­cer­a­tion. Because cer­tain court and pros­e­cu­tion costs could not be obtained, the authors said the costs were, ​“under­stat­ed,” and may be high­er than the estimates given.

(C. Lochhead, ​“Audit: Death penal­ty near­ly dou­bles cost of Nevada mur­der cas­es,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, December 2, 2014; Legislative Auditor, ​“Performance Audit: Fiscal Costs of the Death Penalty,” November 17, 2014). See Costs and Studies.