The Cost of Death Penalty

The State of California could save $100 million a year if the death penalty were abolished and those currently on death row were sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, according to the California Commission on the Fair Administration of Justice. The legal and penal costs associated with maintaining the death row population-now at 673-is higher than the at-large prison population. Although the 22 commissioners were divided on many key points, they discovered that none of the 13 executed in California since 1978 were factually innocent. However, 14 inmates sentenced to death between 1989 and 2003 have since been exonerated. Nationally, it takes 12 years to execute someone convicted on capital charges, but in California, it takes 20 as a result of the backlog of death row appeals overwhelming the court system. Of the 10 people sent to Death Row by Santa Barbara prosecutors, Malcolm Robbins has been there the longest-since 1980-for the Father’s Day murder of a Goleta child. None have execution dates assigned.