Prosecutors across the country are seeking the death penalty less frequently and in recent interviews two district attorneys, one from Texas and one from Pennsylvania, have given some of their reasons why. Randall County, Texas District Attorney James Farren (pictured) told KFDA-TV in Amarillo that his experience handling one particularly lengthy and costly capital case has changed how he will make decisions in future cases that are eligible for the death penalty. He said that his office has spent, “conservatively…at least $400,000” on the prosecution of Brittany Holberg, who has been on death row since 1998. Farren said the costs are too high for taxpayers and “I do not want to subject them to this kind of thing any longer.” While he said he still supports the death penalty, Farren predicted that, in the near future, the U.S. Supreme Court “likely will decide society has evolved to the point that it’s no longer appropriate.” In an interview with the Reading Eagle, John T. Adams, District Attorney of Berks County, Pennsylvania, says that he rarely seeks the death penalty and is “just as happy with a life sentence as I am a death sentence.” If defendantants are sentenced to life without parole, Adams says, “[t]hey will not be a threat to our community ever again. And frankly, community safety is the utmost of my concerns.” Adams adds, “I think you will find throughout Pennsylvania that we are seeking [the death penalty] less and less, and I think that’s good.”
(J. Kanelis, “Holberg capital case still causing headaches,” KFDA News Channel 10, December 15, 2015, photo by KFDA; N. Brambila, “DA supports death penalty, but not adamantly,” Reading Eagle, December 14, 2015.) See New Voices, Costs, and Life Without Parole.
