Texas Senior District Judge C.C. Cooke, who sentenced three defendants to death, now finds the sentence of life without parole “more palatable.” After a case where he doubted the defendant’s guilt, Judge Cooke said, “”To be honest, that’s when I started having some doubts about trying capital murder cases. I tended to believe his story.” The judge continued, “I would have been more comfortable if he could have been locked away for life without parole.” In addition to innocence, Judge Cooke found costs to be another problem with the death penalty. “The last time I lectured on the subject, a capital trial cost over $3 million,” he said. “Well, we can keep a person in prison for life for about $500,000. Some say it costs too much to keep them locked up, but that doesn’t square. It’s a lot cheaper to keep them in a 9 by 6 cell instead of paying the attorneys’ fees and all the other costs that go with a capital trial. Some counties can’t afford it. In Brewster County, the net tax base wouldn’t pay for a capital trial.” The judge concluded, “It’s not a debate that’s going to go away. It’s not a flawless system. You hope there are enough stopgaps in the appellate system that we don’t execute an innocent person.”

(P. Kendell, “Judge favors sentence other than death,” Cleburne Times-Review, April 13, 2009). See New Voices, Innocence, and Costs.