Reaching Abolition Through County Strategy

Want to do more to abolish the death penalty in PA? Take this opportunity to

Spring into Action through our new County Level strategy!

County strategy – Most of the cost of the death penalty is borne by Pennsylvania's counties, not the state, yet most county commissioners and almost all county residents have no idea how much more expensive a capital trial is compared to a trial where the maximum possible sentence is life without parole or a sentence of years. I’m asking that each of you contact your county commissioners and ask some tough questions about the cost of capital trials. If there is a current case where the District Attorney is considering seeking the death penalty or has already announced that he or she will seek the death penalty, please ask for the cost estimate for that case.

Last summer, I contacted one of the commissioners for York County. He had no idea of how much more a death penalty trial costs as opposed to one where death is not being sought. He also had no idea of how I might find out. He suggested that I look at the county’s budget. I did. Of course, those costs are not captured separately. The way the process works here is that when the court needs funding, a request is sent to the commissioners who then approve it without questioning it.

I went to the District Attorney’s Office and asked about the cost differences. I got the typical answer that since all of the staff are paid a salary and not by the hour or day, it doesn’t cost any more to put on a death penalty prosecution than it would to put on a prosecution where the maximum sentence is not death. This is patently untrue. Even if we are unable to capture the dollar amount, there is still an opportunity cost. What other cases might be prosecuted without the long delays that are delaying justice?

It will help us to abolish the death penalty if residents of many counties asked the same question of the district attorneys. While you may not receive a straight forward answer, your inquiry sends a clear message that residents are watching and are concerned about how their tax dollars are being spent.

Your experiences, whether they include attending a capital trial or a portion of it, meeting with county commissioners, District Attorneys, and the Chief Public Defender, would all make for powerful letters to the editor, blogs, facebook posts, tweets and more. If you’d like help with composing your letters or blogs, or social media messages, please let me know at KLucas@padp.org.

Last, but certainly not least, if you are able, please attend court proceedings of capital cases. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania often conducts these cases as quickly and cheaply as possible. For example, I attended one trial where jury selection began on Monday and the defendant was sentenced to death on Friday afternoon.

Check back here soon for observation tips and a form that will make sharing your insights with the PADP office even easier. give you tips on observing and writing what you see and hear.

Thanks again for all that you do.

Kathleen

Moving toward a Moratorium

A report released on The-News-Leader.com by Andrew Welsh-Huggins of the Associated Press today announced that Ohio’s 30-year-old death penalty law will be examined by a committee, which was convened by Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor. According to O’Connor, the purpose of the committee is not to decide if Ohio should have capital punishment, but rather to build a fair and impartial analysis of the law. During the time of the committee, which was given just over a year to complete the study, there will be an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty in the state, as three executions have already been postponed and another inmate has requested a postponement of his Nov. 15 execution date as well.

While this is not an end to the death penalty in Ohio by any means, it is a signal that dialogue has begun surrounding the issue, a dialogue that will hopefully spark debate among the additional 33 states in the U.S. that still have capital punishment on the books. After all, the systemic issues with Ohio’s capital punishment system are certainly not unique to the state. In fact, the issues with capital punishment go far deeper than simply a moral issue of whether it is permissible for the State to take the life of one of it’s citizens. The death penalty system is one that is clearly unbalanced in terms of race, class, and geography.

According to The Death Penalty Information Center, 96% of the states where the death penalty has been reviewed have shown a clear pattern of race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination. Additionally, over 75% of the murder victims in cases that resulted in execution were white, despite the fact that only 50% of murder victims are white. In terms of socio-economic imbalance, nearly all the defendants in capital cases cannot afford their own attorneys and are given court-appointed attorneys, which, according to recent studies in states like Pennsylvania, such as this one, these court-appointed attorneys are often over-worked and under-paid, and many times lack the experience necessary to take on a capital case (read more here). Within states that allow the death penalty, the quality of representation or the likelihood that a court will pursue the death penalty often varies from county to county, making the system one that is not only rife with classism and racism, but also one that is arbitrary, based more on the color of the victim’s skin and on the county the crime was committed in then on the severity or proof of the crime.

And not only is this system a gross violation of human rights in this country, it is also costs more than life without parole. The Death Penalty Information Center notes that in Kansas, capital cases are 70% more expensive than cases of life without parole. In Florida, it costs the state $51 million a year over what it would cost to give all first degree murder cases life without parole. This trend is similar across all 34 states with the death penalty still in place. In such difficult economic times, it is hard to imagine why a system which has been proven to be a failure in terms of deterrence of future crimes and which is clearly racially skewed, geographically skewed, and socio-economically skewed, is allowed to continue in this country. With fewer and fewer people in support of the death penalty every year, it is time that we have some serious debate about our criminal justice system and our medieval capital punishment system. Ohio has begun the discussion. Now it is time for the remaining 33 states to do the same.

Article also published at The Progressive Playbook.