Looking in on: Carson City:

Death penalty a costly proposition

Study finds few in state executed, expenses high

Wed, Jul 9, 2008 (2 a.m.)

CARSON CITY — Only 8 percent of those sentenced to death in Nevada have been executed in the past 25 years. Almost as many Death Row inmates die from natural causes as from execution.

Those are the statistics from Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, who suggests the death penalty is far more expensive than keeping an inmate in prison for life.

Dieter, testifying by telephone to the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice, said nationally two-thirds of death penalties are overturned on appeal. And 82 percent of those sentenced end up getting life terms, he added.

The cost of the death penalty cases has escalated because of numerous appeals, which run 12 years on average, he said. New Jersey hasn’t executed one Death Row inmate in 25 years but has spent $250 million in the same period.

The advisory commission, headed by Nevada Supreme Court Justice Jim Hardesty, is considering changes in the criminal law but has not yet made its recommendations to be presented to the 2009 Legislature.

Dieter said he hasn’t done any studies on the costs of Death Row inmates in Nevada.

There are 83 inmates on Death Row in Nevada, and there have been 12 executions since 1976. Las Vegas killer Patrick Castillo was the most recent inmate to face execution. He was sentenced to death for the tire-iron slaying of 86-year-old Isabelle Berndt in her Las Vegas home in 1998.

Castillo had given up his appeals and was scheduled to be executed in October 2007. But the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada submitted an appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court on his behalf and the execution was called off. Since then, Castillo has decided he’ll pursue additional appeals.

Dieter said Nevada differs from other states in that almost all of those executed have waived further court appeals.

•••

The Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice received a report that the crime rate in Clark County has dropped 15 percent in the past five years.

James Austin of the Justice Center of the Council of State Governments said the study shows there have been 33 homicides from January to May this year compared with 55 in the same period in 2003.

Rape was the only major crime to show an increase, up 4 percent in the January-May comparison with 2003. And car thefts have dropped 28 percent in the five-year comparison.

Metro Assistant Sheriff Raymond Flynn said that adding 400 officers was responsible in part for the drop in the crime rate.

The department also was “working smarter,” he said. For example, the department is using “bait cars” to lure auto thieves.

Still, the Las Vegas area is the crime center of Nevada. With 70 percent of the population, 79 percent of violent crimes occur in Southern Nevada and 76 percent of property crimes are committed in Clark County, according to Austin, who is on contract with the commission.

•••

The Legislature is looking ahead to its 2009 session. One of the bills being proposed would bar minors from using cell phones while driving.

Assemblyman Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, notes that his proposed legislation doesn’t go as far as a recent California law that makes it illegal to hold a cell phone while driving. Manendo said there will be discussions about including adults in the bill.

He introduced a similar bill in 2007 but it didn’t get out of the Assembly Transportation Committee. He says there is more support this time and called it a “good first step” because teens are easily distracted while driving.

Sen. Dennis Nolan, R-Las Vegas, chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, says he doesn’t favor joining California in the cell phone ban. There are studies, he said, showing that motorists can hold on to a cell phone and drive safely at the same time. “It’s up to the individual,” he said.

On the other hand, Nolan wants to toughen the seat belt laws, making not wearing a seat belt a primary offense.

Discussion: 4 comments so far…

By KHAYES7356

7/9/08 at 6:14 a.m.

Suggest removal

Just a few correction and clarifications to the section on the hearing on the death penalty.

From para #1. 139 inmates in NV have been sentenced to death since 1976, 12 have been executed, 7 died on death row, and 2 additional suicides.

From para #3. There have been 7,331 death sentences since 1976. As of yesterday there were 3,392 on death row and 1109 have been executed and 294 have either died or committed suicide.
So I am not sure where the 82% figure comes from, when 4795 is that total and that comes out to be about 65%. There are 1223 "hard life" sentences.

From para #7 & 8: This is another example of why the costs are so high. Castillo had given up appeals after his normal appeals, then outside sources convinced him to appeal.

Bill Hayes
Capital Punishment Studies
Death Row (Bobit Pub)
By dudleysharp

7/9/08 at 7:21 a.m.

Suggest removal

Mr. Ryan: You have been duped.

From "Death penalty a costly proposition", By Cy Ryan, Nevada Sun

"(Richard) Dieter, chief of the Death Penalty Information Center), testifying by telephone to the Advisory Commission on the Administration of Justice, said nationally two-thirds of death penalties are overturned on appeal. And 82 percent of those sentenced end up getting life terms, he added."

Totally absurd. Some reality.

7662 have been sentenced to death, 1004 executed. Cases overturned and for what reasons: 512 statute 6.7%; 784 conviction 10%; 1406 sentence 18.3%.

Total percentage overturned 35% (from 1973-2005) - not Dieter's absurd 67% claim.

It should be noted that many of the cases had solid convctions and sentences, based upon the law at the time of the trial. Many were overtuned because of new laws or case law occurring after the initial trials, meaning that the cases were handled properly at the time.

At least 4619(60%) out of the total 7662 sentenced to death were not converted to a life sentence, meaning that Dieters claim that 82% end up with a life sentence is also, wildly, absurd.

A full review would likely find that somewhere between 20-30% may receive a life sentence.

(SOURCE: "Capital Punishment 2005", appendix table 2, page 14, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Justice Dept.)

Dieter's claims are blatantly false and easily proven so. He and his group are anti death penalty.

Dieter paraphrase: "The cost of the death penalty cases has escalated because of numerous appeals, which run 12 years on average, he said. New Jersey hasn’t executed one Death Row inmate in 25 years but has spent $250 million in the same period."

More absurdity.

The $250 million number came from an anti death penalty group in NJ. The NJ Death Penalty Commission concluded that they couldn't ascertain the cost differential between a life and death sentence.

Furthermore, it is easily argued that NJ had the more cost inefficient death penalty system in the US. In several states, it is arguable that the death penalty system is cheaper than the life without parole.

Look at Virginia, for example.

Or North Carolina.

The Duke University/North Carolina cost study is often distorted or not fully reviewed (see Dieter).

A full review finds that the study only looks at a 20 year "life" sentence. In an equal, apples to apples comparison of individual death sentences to individual life sentences, using the projected costs of a full life term, it turns out that the life sentence would cost, considerably, more than a death sentence.
By dudleysharp

7/9/08 at 7:42 a.m.

Suggest removal

My apologies, I meant the Las Vegas Sun.

In case you get more interesting information from Dieter, here is a rebuttal.

Innocence Issues

Death Penalty opponents have proclaimed that 129 inmates have been "released from death row with evidence of their innocence", in the US, since the modern death penalty era began, post Furman v Georgia (1972)

The number is a fraud.

Those opponents have intentionally included both the factually innocent (the "I truly had nothing to do with the murder" cases) and the legally innocent (the "I got off because of legal errors" cases), thereby fraudulently raising the "innocent" numbers. This is easily confirmed by fact checking.

It appears there are about 26 innocence cases, a 0.3% actual guilt error rate for the nearly 8000 sentenced to death since 1973. All were freed.

Deterrence Issues

16 recent US studies, inclusive of their defenses, find a deterrent effect of the death penalty.

Regardless of jurisdiction, having the death penalty will always be an added deterrent to murders, over and above any lesser punishments.

Racial issues

White murderers are twice as likely to be executed in the US as are black murderers and are executed, on average, 12 months more quickly than are black death row inmates.

Any racial combinations of defendants and/or their victims in death penalty cases, is a reflection of the crimes committed and not any racial bias within the system, as confirmed by studies from the Rand Corporation (1991), Smith College (1994), U of Maryland (2002), New Jersey Supreme Court (2003) and by a view of criminal justice statistics, within a framework of the secondary aggravating factors necessary for capital indictments.

Cost Issues

Findamentally, there is no reasonable reason for the death penalty to cosy more than equivalent life cases.

Most, if not all, of the studies finding the death penalty to be more expensive than life without parole exclude important factors, such as (1) geriatric care costs, recently found to be $69,0000/yr/inmate, (2) the death penalty cost benefit of providing for plea bargains to a maximum life sentence, a huge cost savings to the state, (3) the death penalty cost benefit of both enhanced deterrence and enhanced incapacitation, at $5 million per innocent life spared, and, furthermore, (4) many of the alleged cost comparison studies are highly deceptive.
By BernieZadrowski

7/9/08 at 9:18 p.m.

Suggest removal

Kudos to "DudleySharp" for pointing out the inaccuracies and outright purposeful deception of the anti-death penalty lobby. I would urge readers to visit prodeathpenalty.com for more accurate and truthful information about the importance of maintaining (and expanding) the use of the death penalty.

"The death penalty is a warning, just like a lighthouse throwing it's beams out to sea. We hear about shipwrecks but we do not hear about the ships the lighthouse guides safely on their way. We do not have proof of the number of ships it saves, but we do not tear the lighthouse down." Poet Hyman Barshay