They could be, at least in the state of Indiana:
In the wake of the dismissal of two death penalty cases in Indianapolis and the demise of National Advocacy Center, one noted defense attorney says capital punishment may be on its way out in Indiana.
“I think what you see here in Marion County is a watershed moment,” said Bob Hammerle who represented Gregory Resnover who was executed for the murder of a police officer in 1994. “If you’re not going to go for the death penalty in either the Turner case or the Allen case, one can justifiably say that the days are numbered for the death penalty.”
Hammerle was referring to the death penalty case against Desmond Turner, who was convicted of the 2006 Hamilton Street murders in which seven people died. Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi dismissed the death penalty aspect of the case in order to persuade Turner to face a bench trial. Turner was found guilty and was sentenced to life without parole.
Earlier this month, Kenneth Lee Allen pleaded guilty to murdering his mother and grandparents and burying their bodies in an eastside basement after Brizzi dropped the death penalty. He faces life without parole. The state spent more than $800,000 in preparing for the Allen trial.
There are any number of arguments that could be made in favor of abolishing capital punishment, but given the economic pinch many states are feeling, the fact that the prosecution of death penalty cases is far more expensive than non-capital cases could be a persuasive argument in favor of doing away with capital punishment altogether. A Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury Office found that death penalty trials cost taxpayers an average of 48% more than the average cost of trials in which prosecutors seek life imprisonment. In Florida, 18 individuals were executed from 1973 through 1988, for a total cost to taxpayers of $57 million, which averages out to a total cost of $3.2 million per execution.
Capital punishment is a costly means of administering justice, and perhaps its days are numbered.
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