Georgia’s Hall County is encoun­ter­ing the high costs of seek­ing the death penal­ty as they pros­e­cute their first cap­i­tal case in nine years. The coun­ty expects the death penal­ty tri­al to cost at least four times as much as a reg­u­lar mur­der tri­al. Capital tri­als are by far the most expen­sive crim­i­nal pro­ceed­ing that takes place in local supe­ri­or courts. Estimates put the cost for jurors and bailiffs alone at more than sev­en times the nor­mal cost for a mur­der tri­al with­out seek­ing the death penal­ty, aver­ag­ing at least $40,000 more for just jury and bailiff pay. The esti­mat­ed increase does not include addi­tion­al attor­ney and expert fees, over­time pay for court­room deputies, increased postage costs for a ques­tion­naire that was mailed to 500 prospec­tive jurors, or the cost of trans­porta­tion and lodg­ing for wit­ness­es. Henry County District Attorney Tommy Floyd, Chairman of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Council of Georgia, said of the costs of cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tion, ​“I have heard from oth­er dis­trict attor­neys in oth­er parts of the state who had pres­sure with peo­ple telling them, ​‘you’re going to [finan­cial­ly] break us.’” A University of North Carolina study esti­mat­ed a cost increase of almost $200,000 for the judge, jury, and attor­neys for one cap­i­tal case com­pared to a stan­dard mur­der tri­al.

County com­mis­sion­ers in Georgia’s Dawson County were faced with the prospect of rais­ing tax­es to pay for three death penal­ty tri­als for a 1991 mur­der. Mike Mears, a for­mer direc­tor of the Georgia Multi-County Public Defender, remarked, ​“There was a dis­cus­sion of actu­al­ly rais­ing the mill­age rate to pay for the tri­als.” Mears added, ​“I think even­tu­al­ly that’s some­thing that the death penalty’s pro­po­nents and oppo­nents could agree on – it’s just too darn expen­sive.” District Attorney Floyd said that the top pri­or­i­ty for the District Attorney’s Association of Georgia will be to push leg­is­la­tion that would per­mit pros­e­cu­tors to seek life with­out parole with­out need­ing to seek the death penal­ty. A sim­i­lar bill stalled in the Senate this year. Floyd said the bill ​“would prob­a­bly reduce the num­ber of mur­der cas­es where the death penal­ty is sought.” Except for cer­tain repeat offend­ers, the only way under Georgia law for life with­out parole to be an option is to seek the death penal­ty.
(S. Gurr, ​“The high cost of death,” Gainesville Times, August 10, 2008). See Costs.

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