The high cost of cap­i­tal tri­als has put the death penal­ty under scruti­ny in Arizona and Colorado. In Mohave County, Arizona, where two cap­i­tal cas­es have already cost about $239,000 this fis­cal year, County Supervisors have been told that the defense costs for try­ing these two cas­es and pur­su­ing three oth­er cap­i­tal cas­es that are cur­rent­ly on appeal will be $380,000 this fis­cal year, with com­pa­ra­ble costs expect­ed for next fis­cal year. County Supervisors approved an expen­di­ture of an addi­tion­al $344,000 this year for the cap­i­tal tri­als. County super­vi­sors ques­tioned County Attorney Matt Smith on the process for deter­min­ing whether to seek the death penal­ty. Smith said his office con­sid­ers the aggra­vat­ing fac­tors in the case, as well as the strength of the defense’s mit­i­gat­ing fac­tors. Though it is not required, Smith said he also con­sid­ers the costs to the coun­ty before seek­ing the death penal­ty. Mohave County has sev­en defen­dants on death row, but only one defen­dant from the coun­ty has been exe­cut­ed. In Colorado, The Denver Post reports that the tri­al of James Holmes, which result­ed in a sen­tence of life with­out parole, cost tax­pay­ers more than $3 mil­lion, includ­ing near­ly $1.6 mil­lion in fed­er­al monies. Holmes had offered to plead guilty if the pros­e­cu­tion dropped its quest for the death penal­ty. When it did not, the result­ing tri­al was one of the longest in state his­to­ry. Among the costs for the tri­al were two psy­chi­atric eval­u­a­tions ($600,000), vic­tims’ ser­vices and trav­el expens­es to attend the tri­al ($1.2 mil­lion, paid out of a fed­er­al grant), and $500,000 in state fund­ing for the District Attorney’s office. The Post said the actu­al price tag for the Holmes case was even high­er, because these totals do not include the salaries of state offi­cials, includ­ing judges, pros­e­cu­tors, and sher­iffs, who spent large amounts of time on the case instead of oth­er cas­es, but would have been paid regard­less. If those salaries are includ­ed, the Post said, the cost of the case soars to more than $7 mil­lion. Public defend­er expen­di­tures were also not includ­ed, because they are pro­tect­ed by attorney-client confidentiality.

(J. Seckler, ​“Supervisors giv­en overview of death penalty’s cost to coun­ty,” Mohave Valley Daily News, April 20, 2016; J. Ingold and J. Steffen, ​“Aurora the­ater shoot­ing tri­al cost tax­pay­ers at least $3 mil­lion,” The Denver Post, April 19, 2016.) See Costs.

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