To the County Board of Supervisors and the District Attorney,

We call on you to keep an accurate financial accounting of and make public the financial costs of the death penalty.

Based on estimates from the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice, the death penalty system costs California taxpayers at least $135 million per year--far more than the $11.5 million a year taxpayers would pay for the alternative sentencing system of permanent imprisonment (also known as life without parole).

Permanent imprisonment is equally effective in keeping violent criminals off the streets. No one sentenced to permanent imprisonment has ever been released. Given that permanent imprisonment costs taxpayers significantly less (less than one tenth of cost of the death penalty), the tax burden imposed by the death penalty is difficult to justify.

The actual cost of a death penalty trial in San Diego County is unknown. The Commission estimates that each time a prosecutor seeks the death penalty in San Diego County it costs local taxpayers at least $1.1 million in trial costs (a conservative estimate). While smaller counties do disclose costs associated with the death penalty, San Diego County does not account for or make public the costs of death penalty trials.

It is the duty of elected officials to disclose how taxpayer money is spent so that the public can determine if its money is being spent in a manner of which it approves.

We call on you to keep an accurate financial accounting of and make public the full financial costs of death penalty trials.

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