Legislators and oth­er offi­cials in Utah are express­ing con­cerns about the high costs of the death penal­ty and its lack of deter­rent effect. Speaking before the Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee, Republican State Representative Steve Handy (pic­tured) said, ​“In today’s world, the death penal­ty is so infre­quent­ly used that I don’t believe it is any kind of a deter­rent.” The Davis County pros­e­cu­tor, Troy Rawlings, a pro­po­nent of the death penal­ty, nev­er­the­less agreed that replac­ing the death penal­ty with life with­out parole ​“would remove some of the sig­nif­i­cant com­pli­ca­tions of cas­es and expe­dite them, as well as save mon­ey.” According to leg­isla­tive fis­cal ana­lyst Gary R. Syphus, it costs coun­ty gov­ern­ments $460,000 annu­al­ly to defend and pros­e­cute a cap­i­tal mur­der case. The Law Enforcement Committee has ranked the death penal­ty the num­ber one pol­i­cy issue to study this year, and a com­mit­tee at the University of Utah is also research­ing the costs of death penal­ty cas­es in the state. 

(L. Park, ​“Lawmaker says cost of car­ry­ing out death penal­ty may not jus­ti­fy it in Utah,” Standard-Examiner, August 16, 2012). See Costs and Utah. See also New Voices. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Costs.

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