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| Idaho Execution Chamber |
Currently, there are 3,170 American men and women on death row. Since 1976, 1,300 people have been executed but 140 people have been released from death row, having been exonerated due to DNA or confessional evidence.
“There are dozens more who are presumably innocent, but the type of evidence is not decisive,” said Tanya Greene, ACLU advocacy and policy counsel. “I would say that the number is much higher, and that should definitely be a concern.”
Greene also pointed to the skyrocketing costs of prosecution, incarceration and constitutionally required appeals involved with capital punishment, and how they compare to life in prison without parole.
“Despite what intuitively seems to flow, it is less expensive to permanently incarcerate someone than it is to charge, try, convict, sentence and execute to death,” said Greene. “
According to Greene, the costs of capital proceedings through execution are two to three times more than permanent imprisonment, and states with limited funding need to decide where their budget is most effectively utilized.
“You make a decision—are we going to pay for schools, keep the public library open, are we going to provide social services or are we going to try and kill people,” said Greene. “It is a failed government program. If any other government program operated at this type of loss in terms of money, it would never happen.”
Greene also pointed to Idaho's recent executions, two in the past eight months.
“Given these recent two executions in the state, Idaho in fact seeks to join the heavy-use states, the states that are executing,” she said.
Greene questioned the audience, asking for their ideas on how to get local attention and how to encourage Idahoans to question capital punishment.
Source: Boise Weekly, July 11, 2012
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