Saturday, June 27, 2009

DEATH PENALTY COSTS: NORTH CAROLINA (1993): Let's Be Honest

Duke (North Carolina) Death Penalty Cost Study (1993): Let's Be Honest
Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom

Contrary to consistent misinformation, the study actually finds that LWOP is more expensive that the death penalty.

A perfect example of how bad things are in academia. 

This cost review has been quoted extensively, in academia, media and in anti-death penalty literature. Every time I have seen it cited, it has been, blatantly, misleading and in error. Not once have I found any correction from the authors. 

Anti-death penalty folks claim that the death penalty costs $2.1 million dollars more than a life sentence in North Carolina.


This sticks as one of the more widely used cost deceptions by the anti-death penalty crowd.


True life cases are more expensive than death penalty cases, as per the Duke Study. (1)


As per the Duke study, the difference in cost between a "life" sentence and a death sentence is from $163,459  -  $216,461. (Table 9.1, page 77)


However, in the study, a "life" sentence is only 20 years. You need to add at least 20 years, or $332, 000/case, to get a true life sentence (my analysis). The Duke study "present valued" incarceration costs at $16, 600/year. (Tables 8.1, page 71 & 9.1, page 73)


The authors also concede leaving out geriatric care, recently found to be $60,000-$90,000/yr/prisoner (various studies). Add $225,000 per case, present valued at $15, 000/year/case for 15 years (my analysis). Geriatric care begins at age 50-55 for prisoners.


The authors should have calculated the cost savings of plea bargains to a life sentence in 20% of the death eligible cases, which accrues as a cost savings for the death penalty. Rough estimate of $40,000 cost saving per plea bargain, an average of $8000/case or 20% of $40,000, although I think the number is too low.


What the study really tells us is that an actual life sentence costs much more than a death sentence.


The study finds that it costs $2.16 million per execution, if you roll the cost of every death penalty cases into only one execution. Specifically, if you have 10 death penalty cases at an "extra cost" of $216, 461/per case, over the cost of a "life" sentence, and you execute 1 of those 10 cases, then the study says that every execution costs $2.16 million more than a single life case.


It's absurd and misleading, of course.


One could be just as misleading and state that it costs $3.48 million per completed true life sentence (death of inmate), over the cost of a death sentence case, if you roll the cost of every true life case into only one lifer's death. Specifically, if you have 10 true life cases at an extra cost of $348,539/per case, over the cost of a death sentence, and 1 of those 10 lifers had died, then every completed true life case costs $3.48 million more than a single death sentenced case. (2)


Just as absurd and misleading, but that is just how that $2.16 million figure was calculated.


NOTE: This highly deceptive presentation of the death penalty costing $2.1 million dollars more than a life sentence has been used extensively and, very, publicly by anti-death penalty activists, for many years. I have found no evidence that the authors of the study ever tried to correct this obvious perversion of their study, although I would find it very hard to believe that they were unaware of it.


Incredibly, New Mexico's irresponsible and/or dishonest Legislative Finance Committee used this Duke study as the only one to show that the death penalty was more expensive than life without parole.


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MANY ADDITIONAL STATE COST REVIEWS


DEATH PENALTY COST: SAVING MONEY

http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/death-penalty-cost-saving-money.html

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3300+ pro death penalty quotes, from some of the greatest thinkers in history, inclusive of 600+ quotes from victims' families
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(1) "The Costs of Processing Murder Cases in North Carolina" http://fds.duke.edu/db?attachment-34--1667-view-301


(2) The $348, 539, reflects the cost a true life sentence over the death penalty, based upon costs and credits for true life incarceration (add $332,000 for life), geriatric care (add $225, 000 for life ), & plea bargain savings ($8000 death penalty credit) combined with the studies <$216, 461>. or $565, 000 - $216, 461 = $348,000 more for a true life sentence. My analysis.

 
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600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
====== 
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Additional research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone.  
 
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
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Partial CV

Friday, June 26, 2009

Studies Author Mum: Phillip Cook, Prof., U of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)

To: Prof. Phillip Cook, Professor, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

I hope you find this of interest.

From:  Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom   

Cost Savings: The Death Penalty
Dudley Sharp, contact info below

Reasonable and responsible protocols, currently in use, will produce a death penalty which costs no more, or will cost less, than Life Without Parole (LWOP).

States could better implement justice, as given by jurors, and save taxpayers money, currently wasted by irresponsible state systems.


1) Obvious solution: Improve the system

Virginia executes in 5-7 years. 65% of those sentenced to death have been executed. Only 15% of their death penalty cases are overturned. The national averages are 11 years, 14% and 36%, respectively.

With the high costs of long term imprisonment, a true life sentence will be more expensive than such a death penalty protocol.



2) Current cost study problems

a) Geriatric care: Most, if not all, cost studies exclude geriatric care, recently found to be $60,000-$90,000/inmate/yr., a significant omission from life sentence costs. Prisoners are often found to be geriatric at relatively young ages, 50-55, because of lifestyle.

b) Plea Bargain to life: ONLY the presence of the death penalty allows for a plea bargain to a maximum life sentence. Such plea cost benefit, estimated at $300,000 to $1 million/case, accrues as a cost benefit/credit to the death penalty. I am aware of no study which includes this. They all must, for a relevant cost analysis.

c) The cost of death row: There need not be any additional cost for death row. Missouri and Kansas don't have one.

NOTE: Depending upon jurisdiction, the inclusion of only 2a and 2b will result in a minimal cost differential between the two sanctions or an actual net cost benefit to the death penalty.

Adding (1) would, very likely, mean that all death penalty jurisdictions would see a cost savings with the death penalty as compared to a true life sentence.


3) The Disinformation problem: The pure deception in some cost "studies" is overt.

a) Some studies compare the cost of a death penalty case, including pre trial, trial, appeals and incarceration, to only the cost of incarceration for 40 years, excluding all trial costs and appeals, and geriatric care for a life sentence. The much cited, highly misleading Texas "study" does this.
b) It has been claimed that it costs $3.2 million/execution in Florida. That "study" decided to add the cost of the entire death penalty system in Florida ($57 million), which included all of the death penalty cases and dividing that number by only the number of executions (18). It is the same as stating that the cost of LWOP is $15 million/case, based upon all costs of 2000 LWOP cases being placed into the 40 lifers to have died (given an average cost of $300, 000/LWOP case, so far, for those 2000 cases.). The much cited and misused Duke University death penalty cost analysis for North Carolina does the same thing.
c) Many of the "studies", such as Maryland's (2008), suffer from similar or worse problems.


4) Deterrence "value": FCC economist Dr. Paul Zimmerman finds that executions result in a huge cost benefit to society. "Specifically, it is estimated that each state execution deters somewhere between 3 and 25 murders per year (14 being the average). Assuming that the value of human life is approximately $5 million {i.e. the average of the range estimates provided by Viscussi (1993)}, our estimates imply that society avoids losing approximately $70 million per year on average at the current rate of execution all else equal." The study used state level data from 1978 to 1997 for all 50 states (excluding Washington D.C.). (1)

That is a cost benefit of $70 million per execution. 15 additional recent studies, inclusive of their defenses, support the deterrent effect.

No cost study has included such calculations.

Although many will find it inappropriate to put a dollar value on life, evidently this is not uncommon for economists, insurers, etc.

The death penalty provides greater protections for innocents than life sentences. (2).

What value do you put on the lives saved? Certainly not less than $5 million.


5) Justice: The main reason sentences are given is because jurors find that it is the most just punishment available. No state, concerned with justice, will base a decision on cost, alone. If they did, all cases would be plea bargained and every crime would have a probation option.

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MANY ADDITIONAL STATE COST REVIEWS

DEATH PENALTY COST: SAVING MONEY
http://prodpinnc.blogspot.com/2013/02/death-penalty-cost-saving-money.html

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1) "State Executions, Deterrence and the Incidence of Murder", Paul R. Zimmerman (zimmy@att.net), March 3. 2003, Social Science Research Network, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID354680_code021216500.pdf?abstractid=354680

2) "The Death Penalty: More Protection for Innocents"
http://homicidesurvivors.com/2009/01/30/the-death-penalty-provides-more-protection-for-innocents---new-mexico.aspx


copyright 2003-2013 Dudley Sharp
Permission for distribution of this document, in whole or in part, is approved with proper attribution.
 
======
600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
====== 
======
 
Additional research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone.  
 
The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
and
Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
======
 
Partial CV