A sin­gle death penal­ty case in Indiana can cost tax­pay­ers as much as $1 mil­lion. In Marion County, the costs of prepa­ra­tion for three poten­tial death penal­ty tri­als have reached $659,000 this year alone, accord­ing to the Public Defender Agency. A high-pro­file death penal­ty case in the same coun­ty has cost near­ly $850,000 and not all the bills are in. Pursuing a life sen­tence costs less than the death penal­ty, even con­sid­er­ing the expense of a con­vic­t’s longer incar­cer­a­tion, accord­ing to Indiana stud­ies. Representation is more expen­sive for death penal­ty defen­dants because each must have two qual­i­fied attor­neys. ​“Every dol­lar we spend attempt­ing to do this, that’s mon­ey we could have spent else­where,” said Chief Public Defender Robert Hill. “(But) we have a con­sti­tu­tion­al man­date to defend our clients.” Since 2000, Hill’s agency reports, defense bills in Marion County death penal­ty cas­es have totaled $3.9 mil­lion. Statewide, costs to tax­pay­ers for the defense in tri­als and appeals have been near­ly $20 mil­lion since 1990, accord­ing to the Indiana Public Defender Commission.

There are also costs on the oth­er side, as pros­e­cu­tors, courts and the prison sys­tem incur enor­mous expens­es in death penal­ty cas­es. “[T]hey’re expen­sive and cost a lot of mon­ey,” said Brent Westerfeld, an Indianapolis defense attor­ney. ​“It does­n’t make sense we’re spend­ing so much to kill peo­ple when we have the life with­out parole option that keeps the pub­lic safe.”

(J. Murray, ​“Is death penal­ty worth the price?,” Indianapolis Star, December 10, 2009). See also Costs and Representation.

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