Death penal­ty cas­es cost more than ordi­nary cas­es because all the lawyers, judges, and oth­er per­son­nel will put more hours into prepar­ing, try­ing, and review­ing the issues, giv­en that a life is at stake. Jack D’Aurora (pic­tured) of the Behal Law Group, writ­ing in The Columbus Dispatch, described the time put in by just one fed­er­al judge in Ohio review­ing a cap­i­tal case towards the end of its appeal, includ­ing the lethal injec­tion process: ​“Hearings are attend­ed, at a min­i­mum, by three assis­tant attor­neys gen­er­al, three attor­neys for the inmate, the Lucasville prison war­den, the direc­tor of the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, coun­sel and oth­er offi­cials from the depart­ment, [the judge] and his two law clerks. These peo­ple all are paid by either the state or the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment. Hearings can last from a few hours to mul­ti­ple days.” The judge esti­mat­ed that he and his staff spend 40 to 60 hours per month on some aspect of the death penal­ty. D’Aurora not­ed that recent cas­es took an aver­age of 21 years between sen­tenc­ing and exe­cu­tion date. ​“The cost like­ly is mil­lions per case,” he not­ed. ​“Life sen­tences with­out parole would serve us much bet­ter, but we are fix­at­ed on a process that drains gov­ern­ment resources,” he concluded.

(J. D’Aurora, ​“Death-penal­ty cas­es waste a lot of tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey,” Columbus Dispatch, Aug. 8, 2012). See Costs. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Costs.

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