INDIANAPOLIS | While the death penalty remains popular among residents of Indiana and Illinois, officials in both states are rethinking whether to keep the ultimate punishment, given its tremendous cost and the potential for error.
Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller this month called on state lawmakers to reconsider their support for the death penalty because of its effect on the already strained budgets of the state and its counties.
For example, Lake County court officials estimate the county could have to pay more than $100,000 for a death penalty defense for Kevin Isom, 44, of Gary, who is accused of killing his wife and two children three years ago.
"It is time that we in the criminal justice system have a candid conversation about the economic impact of capital punishment in Indiana," Zoeller said.
The Republican attorney general pointed out that counties and the state often end up paying for both sides in a death penalty trial, as nearly all death penalty-eligible defendants receive legal assistance from the public defender at trial and in their mandated appeals.
An analysis by the nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency pegged the average cost of a capital case and one appeal at $449,887, not including expenses for prosecutors or sheriffs. Trials in which the maximum possible penalty is life without parole only cost an average of $42,658, according to the agency.
The National Institute of Corrections, a federal agency, pegs the annual cost of incarceration at $19,695 per inmate in Indiana and $21,334 in Illinois. That means a person sentenced to life in prison in Indiana would have to spend more than two decades behind bars before the cost would outweigh just the defense cost of a capital punishment trial and initial appeal.
Legislation to get rid of the death penalty in Illinois could come up for a vote when the General Assembly returns to Springfield on Monday. The Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which has been quietly rounding up votes for years, is confident a death penalty repeal could become law.
In the past seven years, Illinois has spent more than $100 million out of its Capital Litigation Trust Fund to pay the expenses of death penalty trials. Since 1976, Illinois has executed 12 people but freed 13 people wrongly convicted and sentenced to death.
That record of error led then-Gov. George Ryan to impose a moratorium on executions in Illinois. That moratorium now has been in place for nearly 11 years.
Despite Zoeller's encouragement, Indiana lawmakers are unlikely to consider a death penalty repeal when they return to the Statehouse on Jan. 5.
Gov. Mitch Daniels and the Republican leaders of the Indiana House and Senate have said they want legislators focused on the state budget, redistricting and school and local government reform, leaving divisive issues like the death penalty for the 2012 session.