In its review of death penal­ty expens­es, the State of Kansas con­clud­ed that cap­i­tal cas­es are 70% more expen­sive than com­pa­ra­ble non-death penal­ty cas­es. The study count­ed death penal­ty case costs through to exe­cu­tion and found that the medi­an death penal­ty case costs $1.26 mil­lion. Non-death penal­ty cas­es were count­ed through to the end of incar­cer­a­tion and were found to have a medi­an cost of $740,000. For death penal­ty cas­es, the pre-tri­al and tri­al lev­el expens­es were the most expen­sive part, 49% of the total cost. The costs of appeals were 29% of the total expense, and the incar­cer­a­tion and exe­cu­tion costs account­ed for the remain­ing 22%. In com­par­i­son to non-death penal­ty cas­es, the fol­low­ing find­ings were revealed:

  • The inves­ti­ga­tion costs for death-sen­tence cas­es were about 3 times greater than for non-death cases.
  • The tri­al costs for death cas­es were about 16 times greater than for non-death cas­es ($508,000 for death case; $32,000 for non-death case). 
  • The appeal costs for death cas­es were 21 times greater.
  • The costs of car­ry­ing out an exe­cu­tion (includ­ing death row incar­cer­a­tion) were about half the costs of car­ry­ing out a non-death sen­tence in a comparable case.
  • Trials involv­ing a death sen­tence aver­aged 34 days, includ­ing jury selec­tion; non-death tri­als aver­aged about 9 days.

(Performance Audit Report: Costs Incurred for Death Penalty Cases: A K‑GOAL Audit of the Department of Corrections, December 2003) Read DPIC’s Summary of the Kansas Cost Report. See Costs.
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