The San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office reflect­ed on a num­ber of fac­tors in decid­ing to forego seek­ing a death sen­tence for Seti Christopher Scanlan, whose first tri­al end­ed in a mis­tri­al after he took the stand and begged jurors to sen­tence him to death. Prosecutors are now seek­ing a sen­tence of life in prison for Scanlan after con­clud­ing that ​“it was not rea­son­ably like­ly that we would get a jury that would deliv­er the death penal­ty.” The case has already cost tax­pay­ers more than half a mil­lion dol­lars and that num­ber would have dou­bled if pros­e­cu­tors had cho­sen to seek a cap­i­tal con­vic­tion dur­ing the sec­ond tri­al. Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe not­ed that even if a jury were to sen­tence Scanlan to death, years of sub­se­quent appeals would cost tax­pay­ers mil­lions more. The deci­sion to seek life effec­tive­ly ends the case against Scanlan, who has admit­ted to killing a Burlingame bank man­ag­er. He will be sen­tenced to sev­en life sen­tences and pos­si­bly anoth­er 90 years on September 20, 2004. David Martel, whose wife was mur­dered by Scanlan, con­curred in the deci­sion not to seek death: ​“Scanlan has one very dark future. He won’t know what it’s like to live in free­dom. It’s gone, and it should be,” he said. (Mercury News, August 24, 2004). See Costs, Victims, and Life Without Parole.

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