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How might police departments of school districts use $3 million in Fulton County, Georgia?

By Douglas A. Berman

This new piece from the New York Times, headlined "In Georgia, Push to End Unanimity for Execution," spotlights some of the consequences of a few Georgian jurors' decision to resist imposing a death sentence on courthouse killer Brian Nichols.  The question for this post comes from this notable accounting of some of the costs of the efforts by the state to get Nichols on death row: The county spent more than $3 million on a 54-count trial featuring 144 witnesses and 1,200 pieces of evidence, and much of that money could have been saved had the prosecution accepted Mr. Nichols?s offer to plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life without parole. Mr. Howard [the Fulton County district attorney] scored a victory by convicting Mr. Nichols on all counts, but his primary goal was always a death sentence...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 18, 2008 (boomark / email).