teacherone
10-21-2009, 04:40 AM
Death-penalty opponents have new allies from an unlikely source: U.S. police chiefs, who say capital punishment does not deter murderers and has become a low law-enforcement priority.
A survey of 500 chiefs of police randomly selected from around the country is the centerpiece of a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center. It concludes that capital punishment is costing states hundreds of millions of dollars for relatively few executions.
The death penalty has evolved into "a very expensive form of life without parole," said Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit capital punishment clearinghouse in Washington, D.C.
"At a time of budget shortfalls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from re-evaluation alongside other wasteful government programs that no longer make sense," Dieter said.
The survey by RT Strategies of Washington found that 83 percent of police chiefs questioned still favor the death penalty, but the vast majority rank it near the bottom of crime-fighting strategies. Adding police officers, fighting drug abuse, longer prison sentences and improved crime databases all are higher priorities.
Similarly, about one in four police chiefs see executions as an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. However, 56 percent said they still prefer it to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The survey was conducted from Oct. 29 to Nov. 14, 2008, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
Ohio has an unofficial moratorium on executions while prison officials work out a new lethal-injection process to replace or supplement a flawed one that most recently caused a postponement in the execution of Romell Broom of Cleveland on Sept. 15.
One law-enforcement official who changed his mind on the topic is James Abbott, a 29-year veteran Republican police chief from Orange, N.J. Abbott served on a New Jersey panel that recommended abolishment of capital punishment.
"I no longer believe that you can fix the death penalty," Abbott said in a statement. "I learned that the death penalty throws millions of dollars down the drain -- money that I could be putting directly into crime fighting -- while dragging victims' families through a long and torturous process that only exacerbates their pain."
The report examined the cost of enforcing and prosecuting capital-punishment cases nationwide, concluding it's economically wasteful as states are slashing budgets and raising taxes to balance budgets' red ink.
The cost is higher because the state ends up paying for both the prosecution and defense of indigent offenders through an appeals process that usually stretches years.
There is no national figure for the cost of pursuing each death penalty case. However, a 1993 North Carolina study estimated the cost at $2.16 million per case in that state. The figure is much higher in other states. New York spent $170 million in less than 10 years and New Jersey racked up $253 million over 25 years; neither state conducted a single execution.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/20/copy/DEATH_STUDY.ART_ART_10-20-09_B3_MGFDVK6.html?adsec=politics&sid=101
A survey of 500 chiefs of police randomly selected from around the country is the centerpiece of a report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center. It concludes that capital punishment is costing states hundreds of millions of dollars for relatively few executions.
The death penalty has evolved into "a very expensive form of life without parole," said Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit capital punishment clearinghouse in Washington, D.C.
"At a time of budget shortfalls, the death penalty cannot be exempt from re-evaluation alongside other wasteful government programs that no longer make sense," Dieter said.
The survey by RT Strategies of Washington found that 83 percent of police chiefs questioned still favor the death penalty, but the vast majority rank it near the bottom of crime-fighting strategies. Adding police officers, fighting drug abuse, longer prison sentences and improved crime databases all are higher priorities.
Similarly, about one in four police chiefs see executions as an efficient use of taxpayer dollars. However, 56 percent said they still prefer it to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The survey was conducted from Oct. 29 to Nov. 14, 2008, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
Ohio has an unofficial moratorium on executions while prison officials work out a new lethal-injection process to replace or supplement a flawed one that most recently caused a postponement in the execution of Romell Broom of Cleveland on Sept. 15.
One law-enforcement official who changed his mind on the topic is James Abbott, a 29-year veteran Republican police chief from Orange, N.J. Abbott served on a New Jersey panel that recommended abolishment of capital punishment.
"I no longer believe that you can fix the death penalty," Abbott said in a statement. "I learned that the death penalty throws millions of dollars down the drain -- money that I could be putting directly into crime fighting -- while dragging victims' families through a long and torturous process that only exacerbates their pain."
The report examined the cost of enforcing and prosecuting capital-punishment cases nationwide, concluding it's economically wasteful as states are slashing budgets and raising taxes to balance budgets' red ink.
The cost is higher because the state ends up paying for both the prosecution and defense of indigent offenders through an appeals process that usually stretches years.
There is no national figure for the cost of pursuing each death penalty case. However, a 1993 North Carolina study estimated the cost at $2.16 million per case in that state. The figure is much higher in other states. New York spent $170 million in less than 10 years and New Jersey racked up $253 million over 25 years; neither state conducted a single execution.
ajohnson@dispatch.com
http://www.dispatchpolitics.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/10/20/copy/DEATH_STUDY.ART_ART_10-20-09_B3_MGFDVK6.html?adsec=politics&sid=101