Even as death penal­ty cas­es con­tin­ue to absorb tens of mil­lions of tax­pay­er dol­lars, state bud­get cuts are affect­ing courts, pub­lic defenders,and dis­trict attor­ney’s offices across the coun­try, rais­ing con­cerns about delays and inad­e­quate rep­re­sen­ta­tion. Reduced bud­gets are impact­ing all aspects of the court sys­tem, includ­ing civ­il and crim­i­nal cas­es, and delay­ing death penal­ty cas­es. Prosecutors are forced to ignore some vio­la­tions, judges are delay­ing tri­als, and in some cas­es, those charged with vio­lent crimes have been set free because speedy tri­al require­ments can’t be met. ​“It’s extreme­ly frus­trat­ing,” said Scott Burns of the National District Attorneys Association. ​“Frankly, the peo­ple that do these jobs have a lot of pas­sion. They don’t do these jobs for the mon­ey. They are in America’s court­rooms every day to pro­tect vic­tims and do jus­tice. And they’re reward­ed with ter­mi­na­tions, fur­loughs and cuts in pay.” On the defense side, in the last three years, Georgia has cut fund­ing for the Georgia Resource Center, which rep­re­sents indi­gent death penal­ty defen­dants in post-con­vic­tion pro­ceed­ings, by $250,000, forc­ing the cen­ter to reduce its staff. ​“We’ve been run­ning on a shoe­string for years and we are min­i­mal­ly avail­able to take care of all the guys on death row,” said Brian Kammer, the cen­ter’s exec­u­tive direc­tor. ​“But with this kind of fund­ing loss, we’re getting crippled.”

Public defend­ers nation­wide are tak­ing on extra clients as their offices face reduc­tions in fund­ing. ​“If you don’t have enough lawyers to han­dle the cas­es, it leaves them open to speedy-tri­al chal­lenges and inef­fec­tive assis­tance of coun­sel,” said Ed Burnette, a vice pres­i­dent of the National Legal Aid & Defender Association.

(G. Bluestein, ​“State bud­get cuts clog crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem,” Wall Street Journal (Associated Press), October 26, 2011.) Death penal­ty cas­es car­ry much high­er costs than oth­er crim­i­nal cas­es, there­by requir­ing a dis­pro­por­tion­ate share of crim­i­nal-jus­tice dol­lars. In California, which has faced some of the coun­try’s tough­est bud­get cuts, the death penal­ty sys­tem has cost the state $4 bil­lion since 1978. In Maryland, a 2008 study found that the aver­age cost to tax­pay­ers for a sin­gle death sen­tence is about $3 mil­lion — $1.9 mil­lion more than a non-death penal­ty case. See DPIC’s Costs and Representation.

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