A New Jersey Policy Perspectives report con­clud­ed that the state’s death penal­ty has cost tax­pay­ers $253 mil­lion since 1983, a fig­ure that is over and above the costs that would have been incurred had the state uti­lized a sen­tence of life with­out parole instead of death. The study exam­ined the costs of death penal­ty cas­es to pros­e­cu­tor offices, pub­lic defend­er offices, courts, and cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties. The report’s authors said that the cost esti­mate is ​“very con­ser­v­a­tive” because oth­er sig­nif­i­cant costs unique­ly asso­ci­at­ed with the death penal­ty were not avail­able. ​“From a strict­ly finan­cial per­spec­tive, it is hard to reach a con­clu­sion oth­er than this: New Jersey tax­pay­ers over the last 23 years have paid more than a quar­ter bil­lion dol­lars on a cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem that has exe­cut­ed no one,” the report con­clud­ed. Since 1982, there have been 197 cap­i­tal tri­als in New Jersey and 60 death sen­tences, of which 50 were reversed. There have been no exe­cu­tions, and 10 men are housed on the state’s death row. Michael Murphy, for­mer Morris County pros­e­cu­tor, remarked: ​“If you were to ask me how $11 mil­lion a year could best pro­tect the peo­ple of New Jersey, I would tell you by giv­ing the law enforce­ment com­mu­ni­ty more resources. I’m not inter­est­ed in hypo­thet­i­cals or abstrac­tions, I want the tools for law enforce­ment to do their job, and $11 mil­lion can buy a lot of tools.” (See Newsday, Nov. 21, 2005; also Press Release, New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, Nov. 21, 2005). See DPIC’s Costs. Also read the Executive Summary. Read the full report. Read the NJADP Press Release.

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