Defending a death penal­ty case costs about four times as much as defend­ing a case where the death penal­ty is not sought, accord­ing to a new study by the Kansas Judicial Council. Examining 34 poten­tial death-penal­ty cas­es from 2004 – 2011, the study found that defense costs for death penal­ty tri­als aver­aged $395,762 per case, com­pared to $98,963 per case when the death penal­ty was not sought. Costs incurred by the tri­al court showed a sim­i­lar dis­par­i­ty: $72,530 for cas­es with the death penal­ty; $21,554 for those with­out. Even in cas­es that end­ed in a guilty plea and did not go to tri­al, cas­es where the death penal­ty was sought incurred about twice the costs for both defense ($130,595 v. $64,711) and courts ($16,263 v. $7,384), com­pared to cas­es where death was not sought. The time spent on death cas­es was also much high­er. Jury tri­als aver­aged 40.13 days in cas­es where the death penal­ty was being sought, but only 16.79 days when it was not an option. Justices of the Kansas Supreme Court assigned to write opin­ions esti­mat­ed they spent 20 times more hours on death penal­ty appeals than on non-death appeals. The Department of Corrections said hous­ing pris­on­ers on death row cost more than twice as much per year ($49,380) as for pris­on­ers in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion ($24,690).

(“Report of the Judicial Council Death Penalty Advisory Committee,” Judicial Council, Kansas Legislature, Feb. 13, 2014; DPIC post­ed April 7, 2014). See Costs and Studies.

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