Testimony of Richard C. Dieter, Executive Director, Death

Costs of the Death Penalty page 2INTRODUCTIONGood morning. Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Committee. I want to thank youfor this opportunity to appear before you and to offer my remarks on the costs of thedeath penalty.My name is Richard Dieter and I am the Executive Director of the Death PenaltyInformation Center in Washington, DC, a position I have held for the past 10 years. Iam also an attorney and an adjunct professor at Catholic University Law School. TheDeath Penalty Information Center is a non-profit organization whose focus is researchand analysis of capital punishment.There are many controversial aspects to the death penalty debate and the question ofcosts often gets overlooked. Fiscal considerations, however, are important in their ownright, and they have a critical impact on other aspects of this discussion.Talk about the death penalty is really about the safety of the community. There aremany ways to make the community safer, and most of these have costs associated withthem. As legislators, you are keenly aware that there is no bottomless pot ofgovernment money to be spent on things that might help the community. The moreyou spend on one project, the less there is available for other worthwhile endeavors.All of the studies regarding the cost of the death penalty have concluded that itamounts to a net expense to the state and the taxpayers. Hence, it must be paid for bysacrificing other projects. Or to put it another way, the extra money spent on the deathpenalty could be spent on other means of making the community safer: better lightingin crime areas, more police on the streets, perhaps longer periods of incarceration forsome offenders, or projects to reduce unemployment. Quite a few jurisdictions withthe death penalty have recently had to cut back on other vital services. In some states,people are being released from prison early as a cost saving measure.