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Nebraska legislature rejects proposal to assess costs of the death penalty

By Douglas A. Berman

This interesting story from Nebraska, which is headlined "How expensive is the death penalty?", confirms my fear that at least some proponents of the death penalty are afraid to take a serious and somber look at whether capital punishment makes economic sense.  Here are the details: State lawmakers easily defeated a proposal Wednesday that would have provided an answer to a much-debated question: How much does it cost Nebraska to have a death penalty? On a 30-15 vote, state senators shot down a proposal by Omaha Sen. Brenda Council to have the State Auditor?s Office study how much money is spent prosecuting and appealing death penalty cases, as well as the potential savings of repealing capital punishment.  Council said Nebraska has never arrived at an accurate accounting of its death penalty costs...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on January 21, 2010 (boomark / email).