Raising awareness about the financial and social costs of the death penalty in San Diego County
1 Death Penalty Trial in San Diego Costs the Same As:
22 deputy sheriff salaries for a year
20 firefighter salaries for a year
14 nurse salaries for a year
26 teacher salaries for a year
23 librarian salaries for a year
The Death Penalty - A Broken and Costly System
The death penalty is a broken and expensive system that is costing San Diego County taxpayers millions.
In a comprehensive report on California's death penalty system released in June 2008, the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice described the system as dysfunctional, costly, and close to collapse. It is plagued by inadequate funding for defense attorneys, long delays in the appeals process, and an ever-present risk that innocent people will be sentenced to death.
San Diego Taxpayers Shoulder a Heavy Burden
The real financial costs of the death penalty fall on the shoulders of counties like San Diego. The Commission estimates that each time a prosecutor seeks the death penalty in a trial in San Diego County it costs local taxpayers upwards of $1.1 million.
Since 2000, 193 defendants in San Diego County have been charged with one or more of the special circumstances that make them eligible for the death penalty. The District Attorney's Office imposes a heavy burden on local taxpayers every time it decides to prosecute a case as a death penalty case.
Given the tremendous budget shortfalls in this state, does it make sense for our county to spend ten times more to fund a dysfunctional death penalty system when we could be using that money to support violence prevention programs, solve crimes, and fund education? Spending money on the death penalty shortchanges other public safety and community programs, underscoring the tangible social costs of the death penalty.
Considering that permanent imprisonment is equally effective in keeping violent criminals off the streets and is significantly less expensive, it is increasingly difficult to justify spending public money to pursue the death penalty.
As concerned taxpayers of San Diego County, we seek a full disclosure of the money spent on pursuing the death penalty. Unlike other counties, San Diego County and the County District Attorney's Office do not disclose their death penalty expenditures. Join us in calling for full transparency and accountability from our county officials. Local taxpayers have a right to know how much of their tax money is wasted on a broken death penalty system.
Based on estimates from the Commission, the death penalty currently costs California taxpayers roughly $135 million. Taxpayers would pay far less, only $11.5 million per year, for the alternative sentencing system of permanent imprisonment, under which no one has ever been released.
The Commission emphasizes that current funding is inadequate and to fully fund the death penalty system would cost roughly $233 million, nearly double what we are paying now for a dysfunctional system and more than twenty times what it would cost to pursue sentences of permanent imprisonment.
