In an opin­ion piece in the News & Observer, Professor Frank Baumgartner of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, recent­ly wrote that the declin­ing use and high costs of the death penal­ty in the state put into ques­tion the wis­dom of retain­ing the pun­ish­ment in North Carolina. Baumgartner not­ed that while mur­der rates in the state have remained rel­a­tive­ly unchanged, the num­ber of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment tri­als and death sen­tences have declined sharply. Prosecutors for­mer­ly sought the death penal­ty in 10%-12% of all mur­ders but now seek it in less than 2% of the cas­es. Juries have like­wise moved away from impos­ing death sen­tences. In 1996, 57% of all death penal­ty tri­als end­ed with the death penal­ty, a stark dif­fer­ence from the 8% in 2008.

Baumgartner cit­ed a recent report by Duke University econ­o­mist Philip Cook that esti­mat­ed a statewide sav­ings of $11 mil­lion annu­al­ly if North Carolina abol­ished the death penal­ty. Baumgartner wrote, ​“Considering that pros­e­cu­tors have been request­ing death less and less, and that juries have been even more spar­ing in their will­ing­ness to impose it, Cook’s esti­mate takes on addi­tion­al mean­ing. If we can save that much mon­ey by mak­ing such a small change from cur­rent prac­tices, why not?” Read full text below.

Death penal­ty’s van­ish­ing point?

In this time of fis­cal stress, a new study by Duke econ­o­mist Philip Cook sug­gests that the state could save $11 mil­lion per year if it stopped pur­su­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Is that a cost sav­ings worth seek­ing, or would it be too rad­i­cal a shift from cur­rent prac­tices?

Recent trends sug­gest that in fact, juries and pros­e­cu­tors across the state have already dra­mat­i­cal­ly reduced their attach­ment to the death penal­ty. Going the final step might pro­duce large sav­ings with lit­tle actu­al change from cur­rent prac­tice.

Consistently over the past decade, North Carolinians have suf­fered 500 to 600 homi­cides per year; the rate in 2008 (6.7 per 100,000 pop­u­la­tion) was a slight decline from 2007 and a larg­er decline from 1999 (7.2 per 100,000). In gen­er­al these num­bers have fluc­tu­at­ed but show no great trend. Thankfully, the num­bers are slight­ly declin­ing rather than increas­ing; we can all be pleased of that!

Whereas mur­ders have been rel­a­tive­ly flat, the num­ber of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment tri­als has declined sharply: From 1996 to 2000, there were 55 to 65 each year before start­ing a steep decline. From 51 tri­als in 2001, the num­bers went down in a steady beat: 35 in 2002, 22 in 2003, and so on until there were just 12 cap­i­tal tri­als in 2008 and nine in 2009.

So, pros­e­cu­tors who once sought cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in 10 per­cent to 12 per­cent of all mur­ders statewide have moved to seek­ing it in less than 2 % of the cas­es.

Juries have done the same as pros­e­cu­tors, mov­ing away from the pun­ish­ment. In 1996, 34 of the 60 cap­i­tal tri­als, or 57 %, end­ed in death sen­tences. That per­cent­age has declined steadi­ly since then: 42 % in 1997, 32 % by 2000, and 20 % in 2002. In 2008, just 1 death penal­ty was imposed out of 12 cap­i­tal tri­als, or 8 % (2009 num­bers showed sim­i­lar trends with 2 death sen­tences out of 9 cap­i­tal tri­als).

The net result of these trends is a remark­able decline in the num­ber of death sen­tences: from 34 in 1996 to just 1 in 2008 and 2 in 2009. Since 2002, the num­bers have con­sis­tent­ly been in the sin­gle dig­its. Executions, of course, have been sus­pend­ed in North Carolina since 2006.

Considering that pros­e­cu­tors have been request­ing death less and less, and that juries have been even more spar­ing in their will­ing­ness to impose it, Cook’s esti­mate takes on addi­tion­al mean­ing. If we can save that much mon­ey by mak­ing such a small change from cur­rent prac­tices, why not?

States have moved away from the death penal­ty for many rea­sons, but the most fun­da­men­tal one is the num­ber of inno­cent peo­ple who have been dis­cov­ered on death row. Nationally, 139 peo­ple have been released in the mod­ern era (post 1976), 8 right here in North Carolina (3 since 2007).

In response to con­cerns about inad­e­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion, courts have required increased safe­guards to ensure that no mis­takes are made; these are like­ly to increase the cost of the death penal­ty sys­tem in the years to come.

It is reas­sur­ing to know that mur­der rates have been slight­ly declin­ing or rel­a­tive­ly steady dur­ing a decade of dra­mat­ic decline in the num­ber of deci­sions by pros­e­cu­tors and our fel­low cit­i­zens serv­ing on juries through­out the state to impose pun­ish­ments of death. Considering how rarely we are using the death penal­ty, Cook’s esti­mate of the cost sav­ings of doing away with it and court require­ments man­dat­ing con­tin­ued high costs in the future, maybe it’s time to just do away with it.

(F. Baumgartner, ​“Death penal­ty’s van­ish­ing point?”, The News & Observer, January 24, 2010) (note: orig­i­nal had mur­der rate as mur­ders per 1,000 pop­u­la­tion rather than per 100,000). See also Costs and Sentencing.

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