An independent study of the costs of seeking and imposing the death penalty in Oklahoma, prepared for the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, has concluded that seeking the death penalty in Oklahoma “incurs significantly more time, effort, and costs on average, as compared to when the death penalty is not sought in first degree murder cases.” The report—prepared by Seattle University criminal justice professors Peter A. Collins and Matthew J. Hickman and law professor Robert C. Boruchowitz, with research support by Alexa D. O’Brien—found that, on average, Oklahoma capital cases cost 3.2 times more than non-capital cases. Reviewing 15 state studies of death penalty costs conducted between 2000 and 2016, the study found that, across the country, seeking the death penalty imposes an average of approximately $700,000 more in case-level costs than not seeking death. The researchers wrote that “all of these studies have found … that seeking and imposing the death penalty is more expensive than not seeking it.” The Oklahoma study reviewed 184 first-degree murder cases from Oklahoma and Tulsa counties in the years 2004-2010 and analyzed costs incurred at the pre-trial, trial, sentencing, and post-sentencing (appeals and incarceration) stages. Capital prosecutions, it found, cost the counties more than 1½ times the amount of incarceration costs than did non-capital trials because capital defendants spent an average of 324 more days in jail prior to and during death penalty trials. Prosecutors spent triple in pre-trial and trial costs on death penalty proceedings, while defense teams spent nearly 10 times more. Oklahoma capital appeal proceedings cost between five and six times more than non-capital appeals of first-degree murder convictions. Despite Oklahoma’s ranking in the bottom 19 states in justice expenditures and what Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater called “horrific issues with underfunding” of Oklahoma’s indigent defense system, the study “conservatively estimated” that an Oklahoma capital case cost $110,000 more on average than a non-capital case. The researchers said their results were “consistent with all previous research on death penalty costs, which have found that in comparing similar cases, seeking and imposing the death penalty is more expensive than not seeking it.” They concluded, “It is a simple fact that seeking the death penalty is more expensive. There is not one credible study, to our knowledge, that presents evidence to the contrary.”

(S. Vincent, “Costly death penalty cases strain state resources, report says,” Tulsa World, Apr. 29, 2017; P. Collins, M. Hickman, and R. Boruchowitz, “An Analysis of the Economic Costs of Capital Punishment in Oklahoma,” Appendix 1B to The Report of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission.) See Costs.

Citation Guide