ACLU Issues New Reports on Costs and Arbitrariness of CA's Death Penalty

The ACLU of Northern California released two reports on March 27, 2008 detailing the high cost of California’s death penalty, and county-by-county disparities in death sentencing.  These reports demonstrate that California’s death penalty is arbitrary, unnecessary and a waste of critical resources.

The Hidden Death Tax

In "The Hidden Death Tax", the ACLU-NC reveals for the first time some of the hidden costs of California’s death penalty, based on records of actual trial expenses and state budgets. The report reveals that:

• California taxpayers pay at least $117 million each year post-trial seeking execution of the people currently on death row;

• Executing all of the people currently on death row, or waiting for them to die there of other causes, will cost California an estimated $4 billion more than if they had been sentenced to die in prison of disease, injury, or old age;

• California death penalty trials have cost as much as $10.9 million.

"The Hidden Death Tax" concludes that not enough is being done to track death penalty expenses. The report recommends tracking more of these costs to provide greater transparency and accountability for a system that costs California hundreds of millions.

Download the Full Report
Download the Executive Summary

Death by Geography

In Death by Geography, the ACLU-NC reveals that while the vast majority of California counties have largely abandoned execution in favor of simply sentencing people to die in prison, a small number of counties continue to send a large number of people to death row. The report shows how arbitrary and unnecessary the death penalty is, and how costly seeking execution is to the counties:

• A resident of Alameda is eight times more likely to be sentenced to death than a resident of nearby Santa Clara.

• Counties that sentence people to death do not experience lower homicide rates or higher rates of solving homicides, but resources devoted to pursuing executions detract from other important programs.

• The$22 million dollars wasted on 20 death sentences in Riverside County since 2000 could have paid the salaries of 49 experienced teachers or 46 new homicide investigators for that same period of time.  Riverside County ranks 23 out of 24 counties on per pupil expenditures on education, and solved only 50 percent of homicides in 2005.

Download the Full Report
Download the Executive Summary