A Seattle University study exam­in­ing the costs of the death penal­ty in Washington found that each death penal­ty case cost an aver­age of $1 mil­lion more than a sim­i­lar case where the death penal­ty was not sought ($3.07 mil­lion, ver­sus $2.01 mil­lion). Defense costs were about three times as high in death penal­ty cas­es and pros­e­cu­tion costs were as much as four times high­er than for non-death penal­ty cas­es. Criminal Justice Professor Peter Collins, the lead author of the study, said, ​“What this pro­vides is evi­dence of the costs of death-penal­ty cas­es, empir­i­cal evi­dence. We went into it [the study] want­i­ng to remain objec­tive. This is pure­ly about the eco­nom­ics; whether or not it’s worth the invest­ment is up to the pub­lic, the vot­ers of Washington and the peo­ple we elect­ed.” (Although Washington’s death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1981, the study exam­ined cas­es from 1997 onwards. Using only cas­es in the study, the gross bill to tax­pay­ers for the death penal­ty will be about $120 mil­lion. Washington has car­ried out five exe­cu­tions since rein­state­ment, imply­ing a cost of $24 mil­lion per exe­cu­tion. In three of those five cas­es, the inmate waived parts of his appeals, thus reducing costs.)

The study was not able to include the like­ly high­er year­ly incar­cer­a­tion costs for death row inmates ver­sus those not on death row.

(J. Sullivan, ​“Seeking death penal­ty adds $1M to pros­e­cu­tion cost, study says,” Seattle Times, January 7, 2015; P. Collins, et al., ​“An Analysis of the Economic Costs of Seeking the Death Penalty in Washington State,” Seattle University, January 1, 2015). See Costs and Studies.

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