Federal Judge Asks U.S. Attorney General to Re-consider Death Penalty Over Costs

United States District Court Judge Nicholas Garaufis recent­ly wrote a let­ter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ask­ing that the gov­ern­ment recon­sid­er seek­ing the fed­er­al death penal­ty in the tri­al of a reput­ed mob boss. According to Judge Garaufis’s let­ter, prepa­ra­tions for the mur­der tri­al of Vinny Basciano in Brooklyn, N.Y., have already cost the gov­ern­ment over $3 mil­lion in legal fees since 2005, and the tri­al pro­ceed­ings have not yet begun. ​“Current cir­cum­stances require a can­did reap­praisal of whether the resources nec­es­sary for a death-penal­ty pros­e­cu­tion should be devot­ed to this case,” Garaufis wrote. The defen­dant is already serv­ing a life sen­tence with­out parole for the mur­der of another rival.

(“NY judge: Death penal­ty would cost gov­’t dear­ly,” Associated Press; J. Fisher, “ ​‘Hit List’ Judge: Spare Mobster,” N.Y. Post, May 14, 2010). See also Costs and Federal Death Penalty.