County admin­is­tra­tors in Washington state say a sin­gle death penal­ty case could cause bank­rupt­cy in their coun­ty. Court costs are paid at a coun­ty lev­el, mean­ing a lengthy and expen­sive death penal­ty tri­al can seri­ous­ly threat­en the coun­ty’s abil­i­ty to pay for oth­er pri­or­i­ties. Jim Jones, the for­mer pres­i­dent of the Washington County Administrative Association, said sev­er­al coun­ties told him, ​“If we had a death penal­ty case, and had to pay $1 mil­lion (in legal costs), we’d go bank­rupt.” If the death penal­ty is not sought, such cas­es cost a lot less. In the late 1990’s, Okanogan County was forced to put a hold on all equip­ment pur­chas­es, includ­ing the replace­ment of worn-out police cars, in order to pay for one death penal­ty pros­e­cu­tion. Last year, the $1 mil­lion cost of a death penal­ty retri­al caused a ​“bud­get emer­gency” in Clallam County. Two months into the process, the pros­e­cu­tor decid­ed to remove the death penal­ty as a pos­si­ble sen­tence. Washington has a fund to defray ​“extra­or­di­nary crim­i­nal jus­tice costs,” but coun­ties typ­i­cal­ly receive only a small frac­tion of the reim­burse­ment they request. 

(J. Martin, ​“How the death penal­ty can bank­rupt a coun­ty,” Seattle Times, February 18, 2014). See Costs and Arbitrariness.

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