According to a recent news report, Indiana tax­pay­ers spend mil­lions of dol­lars to send dozens of peo­ple to death row, but more than half of those sen­tenced have had their con­vic­tions over­turned or their sen­tences vacat­ed. In addi­tion, the ris­ing costs of the death penal­ty have result­ed in a more arbi­trary appli­ca­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment due to fund­ing con­straints in cer­tain rur­al coun­ties, a fact that has many state res­i­dents ques­tion­ing the pun­ish­men­t’s true val­ue. Defense expens­es in cap­i­tal tri­als can cost the state more than $500,000 per case, and that fig­ure does not reflect the mil­lions of addi­tion­al dol­lars spent to pay for pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al expens­es, appeals, and incar­cer­a­tion costs. In small Indiana juris­dic­tions such as Pike County and Posey County, those finan­cial fig­ures and staffing short­ages con­tributed to pros­e­cu­tors’ deci­sions not to seek the death penal­ty. Posey County pros­e­cu­tor Jodi Ubelhack, who recent­ly faced three death-eli­gi­ble cas­es, not­ed, ​“We only have two pros­e­cu­tors that han­dle crim­i­nal mat­ters. If you have 3 death penal­ty cas­es, then noth­ing else gets han­dled.” Clark County pros­e­cu­tor Steven Stewart said that high costs could even­tu­al­ly lead to elim­i­nat­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. ​“Once the judges accept that and start spend­ing that kind of mon­ey on every death penal­ty case, it’s only a mat­ter of time before the pub­lic at large says it’s not worth it,” Stewart said. (WFIE News, November 20, 2004) See Costs.

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