For those against the Death Penalty

[fredtoast]

(07-03-2018, 05:45 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Ok, I've heard it costs more because of the amount of appeals and what not. 

But you got to be in favor of the burden of proof being much greater don't you? 

I don't know about number of appeals.  I guess there are probably more allowed for death penalty cases.

The biggest added cost for a death penalty case is the "sentencing phase".  Most people don't realize that once a person is convicted of a crime there is a totally separate "hearing" where the court determines the punishment for the crime.  Some times these sentencing hearings can be much more complicated that the trial that determined guilt, especially in a death penalty case.  In fact in some cases a person will plead guilty and have no trial, but have an extensive hearing on sentencing involving psychiatrists, friends, family members, etc. 

By far the biggest added cost to a death penalty case is the sentencing phase.