Citing the costs of seek­ing the death penal­ty, Louisiana pros­e­cu­tors are ​“cut­ting way back,” accord­ing to State Attorney General Buddy Caldwell. A for­mer dis­trict attor­ney, Caldwell com­pared try­ing a cap­i­tal case to ​“play­ing on a $100-a-roll table instead of a nick­el or dime table.” He explained that he could try a sec­ond-degree mur­der case for $15,000 to $20,000 instead of $250,000 to put a death-penal­ty defen­dant on tri­al. Caldwell said the cost of expert wit­ness­es and inves­ti­ga­tors was one rea­son for the price dif­fer­ence. District attor­ney Linda Watson said the costs of pros­e­cut­ing a cap­i­tal case are too much, espe­cial­ly for an impov­er­ished region. Since parish­es usu­al­ly have to pay for legal defense costs and hous­ing for jurors dur­ing tri­als, in addi­tion to the prosecutor’s expert wit­ness­es and inves­ti­ga­tors, her office usu­al­ly pur­sues life in prison instead. ​“The cost of a death penal­ty case is unbe­liev­able,” Watson said.

Louisiana has not had an exe­cu­tion in almost sev­en years. Death row inmates are con­fined at the state prison in Angola.

(M. Millhollon, ​“Economics of Executions,” Advocate Capital News, March 8, 2009). See Costs and Arbritrariness.

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