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New Duke study claims $11 million in yearly savings if NC eliminated death penalty

By Douglas A. Berman

This effective local article, which is headlined "Study: End death cases, save money," reports on a new study coming out of Duke University claiming that North Carolina could save millions by eliminating the death penalty. Here are some of the details: If the state stopped trying to execute killers, it would free up $11 million a year, according to a study by a Duke University economist published this month. There is little return on the dollars spent on seeking the death penalty, says Philip Cook, an economist at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy. Of the 1,034 people charged with murder in North Carolina in 2005 and 2006, prosecutors initially sought the death penalty against about a quarter of them. Only 11, though, were sentenced to death for their crimes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 28, 2009 (boomark / email).