A recent state analy­sis of the costs of the death penal­ty in Indiana found the aver­age cost to a coun­ty for a tri­al and direct appeal in a cap­i­tal case was over ten times more than a life-with­out-parole case. The aver­age death case cost $449,887, while the aver­age cost of a life-with­out-parole case was only $42,658. The study, pre­pared by the Legislative Services Agency for the General Assembly, found that even while fac­tor­ing the longer incar­cer­a­tion peri­od for those sen­tenced to life with­out parole, the cost of the death penal­ty still out­weighed the cost of life with­out parole. The study also not­ed that Indiana was fol­low­ing the nation­al trend of declin­ing use of the death penal­ty. Indiana pros­e­cu­tors did not file a sin­gle new death penal­ty case for more than a year from August 2006 through December 2007, accord­ing to the pub­lic defend­er coun­cil. Between 1990 and 2000, pros­e­cu­tors request­ed the death penal­ty in 153 cas­es from the 4,617 mur­ders and homi­cides report­ed in the state. From those 153 cas­es where the death penal­ty was sought, 48 went to tri­al, 25 result­ed in death sen­tences, and 4 actu­al­ly result­ed in an exe­cu­tion. Clark County Prosecutor Steven Stewart stat­ed that, while he agrees with the death penal­ty, it does cost more than life in prison without parole. 

(S. Brown, ​“The death penal­ty: Worth the cost?” NWI Times, July 4, 2010). See Costs and Studies.

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