STUDIES: Death Penalty Costs North Carolina Nearly $11 Million a Year

A recent study pub­lished by a Duke University econ­o­mist revealed North Carolina could save $11 mil­lion annu­al­ly if it dropped the death penal­ty. Philip J. Cook, a pro­fes­sor at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, cal­cu­lat­ed the extra state costs of the death penal­ty dur­ing fis­cal years 2005 and 2006. He cal­cu­lat­ed over $21 mil­lion worth of expens­es that would have been saved if the death penal­ty had been repealed. The total includ­ed extra defense costs for cap­i­tal cas­es in the tri­al phase, extra pay­ments to jurors, post-con­vic­tion costs, resen­tenc­ing hear­ings, and the extra costs to the prison sys­tem. This con­ser­v­a­tive esti­mate did not include resources that would have been freed up in the Office of the Appellate Defender and the North Carolina Supreme Court, the extra time spent by pros­e­cu­tors in cap­i­tal cas­es, and the costs to tax­pay­ers for fed­er­al appeals. Cook con­clud­ed that costs are not the only con­cern, but rel­e­vant to the dis­cus­sion of whether the death penal­ty should be retained, ​“The bot­tom line is that the death penal­ty is a finan­cial bur­den on the state and a resource-absorb­ing bur­den on the tri­al courts. That con­clu­sion is rel­e­vant to the debate over whether pre­serv­ing the death penal­ty is in the pub­lic inter­est….” He also com­ment­ed, ​“It’s not an ide­al use of resources to have so much time devot­ed to such a small num­ber of cas­es if your goal is to reduce crime rates.”

The two-year costs were summed up as follows:

Extra defense costs for cap­i­tal cas­es in tri­al phase $13,180,385
Extra pay­ments to jurors $224,640
Capital post-con­vic­tion costs $7,473,556
Resentencing hear­ings $594,216
Prison sys­tem $169,617
Total $21,642,414

The extra in-kind costs, not includ­ed in the total above, result­ing from the death penal­ty were described in the report as follows:

“Abolition would also have freed up resources in the courts and dis­trict
attor­neys’ offices, as well as the Office of the Appellate Defender and the
North Carolina Supreme Court. These in-kind costs include free­ing up the
equiv­a­lent of nine assis­tant pros­e­cu­tors each year, as well as a 345 days of
tri­al court time and some­thing like 10% of the resources of the Supreme
Court and the Office of the Appellate Defender.”

(P. Cook, ​“Potential Savings from Abolition of the Death Penalty in North Carolina,” American Law and Economics Review, advance access, December 11, 2009; M. Locke, ​“Study: End death cas­es, save mon­ey,” NewsObserver​.com, December 28, 2009). See also Costs and Studies. North Carolina has not had an exe­cu­tion since 2006; two peo­ple were sen­tenced to death in 2009.