In a recent op-ed, Tracie Olson, the Yolo County Public Defender, explained why California’s death penal­ty could be replaced with more cost-effi­cient and less risky alter­na­tives. Olson list­ed the death penalty’s high costs and risks of wrong­ful exe­cu­tions as rea­sons why alter­na­tives to the death penal­ty would be more ben­e­fi­cial to the state’s cit­i­zens. Olson cit­ed a 2011 study that found the death penal­ty has cost the state over $4 bil­lion since 1978, and that cap­i­tal cas­es cost 10 – 20 times more to lit­i­gate than mur­der tri­als that do not involve the death penal­ty. Olson con­clud­ed, ​“A soci­ety that respects life does not delib­er­ate­ly kill human beings. An exe­cu­tion is a vio­lent pub­lic spec­ta­cle of offi­cial homi­cide, and one that endors­es killing to solve social prob­lems — the worst pos­si­ble exam­ple to set for the cit­i­zen­ry, and espe­cial­ly chil­dren. … I urge every­one to learn the truth and edu­cate them­selves about the death penalty.…” 

(T. Olson, ​“The truth about the death penal­ty,” Daily Democrat, July 29, 2012). See Costs and Innocence. Read edi­to­ri­als about the death penal­ty. Listen to DPIC’s pod­cast on Costs.

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