Police Chiefs: Death Penalty Doesn't Work

by Matt Kelley · 2009-10-20 16:05:00 UTC
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A report released today by the Death Penalty Information Center finds that Police Chiefs don't believe the death penalty deters crime.

They also don't think it's a good use of taxpayer money.

Oh, and if they had to choose between life without parole (with victim restitution) and the death penalty, only 47% of them would choose death. That's exactly the same result as a Gallup poll of all Americans I reported on over the weekend.

Aren't police chiefs -- who see the results of violent crime up close, who come into contact with candidates for the death penalty --  uniquely qualified to evaluate its impact? I think they are. And they don't think it works.

The report goes on to examine the exorbitant -- and rising costs of capital punishment in this country. It delves into the opportunity cost of capital punishment -- a topic not often considered when looking at the straight dollar cost of executions. The talented defense attorneys and prosecutors who spend years of their time on death penalty cases could be spending that time more wisely, litigating critical cases that for one reason or another don't meet the mandate to involve a death sentence. It takes 1,000 hours of state-salaried time to arrive at a death sentence, DPIC finds, and only 100 hours to arrive at a sentence of life without parole. That's a lot of time that could be spent ensuring that cases carrying life sentences also get a just result.

The report is worth a look - download it here.

Matt Kelley is the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project and a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. Follow him on Twitter @mattjkelley.
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