Rome's Coliseum
Rome's coliseum lit the night sky
March 2 to recognize the Montana Senate's
vote to abolish the death penalty on a vote
of 27-23. As The Abolitionist goes
to press, it appears New
Mexico will be the
next honoree; New Hampshire, Nebraska, and
our own
fair state may be celebrating their
evenings at the coliseum as well.
There are no done deals.
In Maryland, where a vote to repeal lost
by only one vote last year, Gov. Martin O'Malley
this year told the Maryland Senate that the
death penalty no longer was economically
defensible.
Study Concluded Death Penalty Costs Three
Times More
O'Malley cited a study
by the Urban Institute which concluded death
penalty cases cost three times more than
murder cases in which the death penalty is
not sought. The Urban Institute looked at
1,227 Maryland homicides between 1978 and
1999 in which defendants were eligible to
receive death sentences. Cases in which the
death penalty wasn't sought averaged
$1,103,000; cases in which it was unsuccessfully
sought cost $1,793,000 while death penalty
cases averaged $3,017,000.
Death penalty
cases cost more because trials were longer,
more lawyers were required, they tended to
have multiple appeals and incarceration of
a death-penalty defendant required a higher
level of supervision. However, the Maryland
Senate's response was to forego total
repeal, but limit capital punishment to cases
where biological evidence or videotape made
guilt incontrovertible.
Capital Punishment Costs an Issue in Other
States
Capital punishment
costs also were an issue with Kansas State
Sen. Carolyn McGinn, a Republican, who figured
each case that drew life imprisonment instead
of the death penalty could save her state
$500,000. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico,
who has opposed abolition in the past, cited
concerns of possible miscarriages of justice,
but also the enormous expense of death penalty
cases, and said he would consider signing
such a bill in these difficult economic times.
Issues of saving money and saving lives
have resulted in strange bedfellows, epitomized
by the Montana Senate's recognition
at the Roman coliseum. The tradition, to
bathe the coliseum in golden light every
time the death penalty takes a serious step
back in the world, began in 2000 and is sponsored
by the activist Community of Sant' Egidio,
the United Nations, the city of Rome, Amnesty
International, Hands Off Cain and the Vatican.
