Idaho Reckons with High Costs of the Death Penalty

A recent op-ed in the Idaho Statesman high­lights a num­ber of dif­fi­cul­ties that are a result of his­toric under­spend­ing on cap­i­tal defense as the state pre­pares for its first exe­cu­tion since 2012. Idaho’s pub­lic defense sys­tem is tran­si­tion­ing to statewide over­sight as part of an effort to address long­stand­ing inequities in coun­ty-fund­ed legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. With the con­sol­i­da­tion of the pub­lic defend­er sys­tem came pay increas­es for most of Idaho’s pub­lic defend­ers, but many of the high­est-paid attor­neys took cuts. The American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho said that with these cuts came ​“mass res­ig­na­tions” of attor­neys and sup­port staff, leav­ing many defen­dants with­out access to ade­quate legal rep­re­sen­ta­tion. In response to this cri­sis, Governor Brad Little request­ed a bud­get increase of 70%, from just over $50 mil­lion to $89 mil­lion for the state pub­lic defense sys­tem for fis­cal years 2025 and 2026.

The bud­get increas­es to sup­port the pub­lic defend­er sys­tem are just one of many fac­tors dri­ving up the cost of pur­su­ing the death penal­ty in Idaho. The state’s deci­sion to amend its lethal injec­tion pro­to­col and pro­ceed with exe­cu­tions, as well as the cre­ation of a new fir­ing squad cham­ber in response to recent leg­is­la­tion have also increased death-penal­ty-relat­ed expen­di­tures. Public records reveal that the state spent $150,000 on lethal injec­tion drugs in its efforts to exe­cute Thomas Creech—$50,000 in October 2023 and $100,000 in June 2024. Recent ren­o­va­tions to the F Block unit at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution to cre­ate an exe­cu­tion prepa­ra­tion room cost an esti­mat­ed $313,915, accord­ing to IDOC pub­lic infor­ma­tion offi­cer Sanda Kuzeta-Cerimagic. The ren­o­va­tions to the exe­cu­tion room includ­ed imag­ing, design, and engi­neer­ing, and are just the first phase of a two-stage ren­o­va­tion. The sec­ond stage includes the cre­ation of a secured facil­i­ty for exe­cu­tions via fir­ing squad, which was adopt­ed as an alter­na­tive exe­cu­tion method in 2023. Phase two con­struc­tion costs are esti­mat­ed at $952,589, as report­ed by the Idaho Capital Sun.

All of this under­scores the finan­cial strain cre­at­ed by the deci­sions to seek death sen­tences and car­ry out exe­cu­tions in Idaho. Lori Daybell’s tri­al, which did not ulti­mate­ly result in a death sen­tence, cost Fremont and Madison Counties about $2 mil­lion. The Idaho Statesman op-ed not­ed that had Daybell’s case been held in neigh­bor­ing Clark County, the amount of mon­ey would have required near­ly a quar­ter of the county’s total operating budget.

Cost stud­ies from mul­ti­ple states con­sis­tent­ly show that cap­i­tal cas­es cost sig­nif­i­cant­ly more than non-cap­i­tal cas­es, for rea­sons includ­ing longer tri­als, increased secu­ri­ty, and appeals. A 2017 inde­pen­dent study in Oklahoma esti­mat­ed that cap­i­tal cas­es in the state cost 3.2 times more than non-cap­i­tal cas­es on aver­age. In their review of 15 dif­fer­ent state stud­ies from across the coun­try, the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission found that nation­al­ly, seek­ing the death penal­ty impos­es an aver­age of approx­i­mate­ly $700,000 more in costs than not seeking death.

The finan­cial strain on Idaho’s pub­lic defense sys­tem high­lights a crit­i­cal dis­con­nect between the state’s pri­or­i­ties and resources. While the statewide pub­lic defend­er sys­tem strug­gles to meet the con­sti­tu­tion­al rights of indi­gent defen­dants, mil­lions are spent on cap­i­tal cas­es and the death penal­ty in a state that has not car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since 2012.