In a recent op-ed in the Albuquerque Journal, the pres­i­dent of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association dis­cussed the high costs of the fed­er­al death penal­ty. In par­tic­u­lar, Barbara Mandel detailed the expens­es involved in the recent fed­er­al tri­al of John McCluskey. He was sen­tenced to life with­out parole, an out­come that Mandel wrote, ​“occurred years and at least a mil­lion dol­lars lat­er than it should have.” According to the op-ed, McCluskey had been will­ing to plead guilty in exchange for a sen­tence less than death ear­ly on, and, in February 2013, a senior judge offered to medi­ate the case. Although then‑U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzalez reject­ed the offer, he did acknowl­edge that fed­er­al cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions inflict logis­ti­cal and finan­cial bur­dens on the entire federal system.

A 2010 study by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts con­clud­ed that the medi­an cost of a fed­er­al death penal­ty case was near­ly eight times greater than a non-death penal­ty case. The aver­age cost for the defense in a fed­er­al death penal­ty tri­al is $620,932, and that fig­ure does not include the cost incurred by the courts, inves­tiga­tive staff, the jury, and expert wit­ness­es. Mandel also under­scored that fed­er­al death penal­ty cas­es divert resources from oth­er cas­es. She wrote, ​“If a gov­ern­ment employ­ee must devote 1,000 hours to seek a death sen­tence but only 100 hours to obtain a life with­out parole sen­tence pur­suant to a plea agree­ment, that 900 hours could have been devot­ed to oth­er cas­es.” Mandel con­clud­ed, ​“The cit­i­zens of New Mexico reject­ed the death penal­ty, in part because it requires divert­ing resources that could be allo­cat­ed to pro­grams that bet­ter increase pub­lic safe­ty, health and welfare.”

(B. Mandel, ​“Pursuing death penal­ty is big waste of resources,” Albuquerque Journal, December 22, 2013). See Costs.

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