The Cost of Capital Punishment

If you add up the state’s legal fees in the Michael Addison and John Brooks capital cases, that state has spent over two million dollars so far.

Money went for everything from added personnel to legal experts to lawyers’ time to paper.

TAPE: paper. You wouldn’t believe how much paper this case generated.

That’s New Hampshire Public Defender Executive Director Chris Keating.

TAPE: we are talking thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces of paper related to this case. In discovery. In police reports. In mitigation evidence. There was just a massive amount of information generated by both sides in this case.

Both Keating and Attorney General Kelly Ayotte agree a capital case is a huge commitment of money.

And both agree that’s a good thing.

Again, Chris Keating.

TAPE: the last thing in the world the state of NH wants is for us to have done an inadequate job representing Michael Addison. Because if we did do an inadequate job at any point, then the state would have to push the reset button and try this case again.

Based on available studies- from start to finish- a death penalty case costs about $3 million dollars.

In two years, the public defender has spent one million dollars representing Michael Addison.

Brooks paid his own defense attorneys.

The Attorney General has spent $1.1 million in the prosecution of Addison and Brooks.

Now both ‘Brooks’ and ‘Addison’ cases are on appeal.

No one wants to ballpark that price tag.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte.

TAPE: it will be a very lengthy appeal. And so that’s going to be a time intensive process...in terms of the exact cost estimate, it’s really difficult knowing what that will be, not having brought one of these cases forward.

The costs of trying a capital case, of course, go beyond dollars and cents.

The AG and Public Defender staffs shoulder increased workloads.

Mike Skibby ran the New Hampshire Public Defender Program in the 1990’s- the last time the office was involved in a death penalty case.

Skibby says the Public Defender pulled several of its top litigators away for the better part of two years to focus exclusively on one case, Addison.

TAPE: and so in small ways that would be hard to identify, you can expect that the organization suffered when four or five of their key people were taken out of commission.

Last year, the Public Defender handled 26,000 cases.

Technically, New Hampshire is a death penalty state.

A narrow number of crimes- killing a police officer, murder during a rape, murder for hire for example- all are capital offenses.

But in actuality the state lacks the legal or physical infrastructure it needs to follow through on the convictions.

For example, to complete Michael Addison’s appeal process, New Hampshire first must create rules for that appeal.

If Addison exhausts all legal recourse, the state then must develop execution protocols and even build a death chamber.

It’s not clear how much any of that will cost.

Incurring these expenses come at a time when the state is tight on cash.

The Justice system, itself, is struggling.

New Hampshire Supreme Court Chief Justice John Broderick briefed the Legislature on the state of the courts on Wednesday.

TAPE: Our court system in New Hampshire is under maximum stress...the most critical need is in the Superior Court where there are 19 judges, the statute calls for 22. Their weighted case load suggests they need 25and a half. The need there is urgent. It’s urgent.

There is some recognition from lawmakers that the state is spending a fair amount of money prosecuting Addison and Brooks.

Recently a bi-partisan bill to study the death penalty- including its cost- sailed through the House.

Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center says New Hampshire isn’t the only state to ask this question.

TAPE: Republican Senator Carolyn McGinn in Kansas when she introduced the bill to abolish the death penalty in her speech said the state is in a financial crisis. And we have to look at programs that aren’t serving the public well. It’s not just cost, it’s what worth are we getting. She pointed out that Kansas had the death penalty for 15 years and there’s been no executions. And none are likely for the next five years.

Dieter says lawmakers in Colorado, Nebraska, Montana and Maryland have raised similar cost-benefit type concerns.

Attorney General Kelly Ayotte says she’s going to leave the fiscal impact of capital cases to the Legislature.

As far as she’s concerned, money isn’t her focus.

If it were, she would have quickly accepted the plea deal to put Addison in prison for life without parole.

The move would have saved the state a lot of money.

TAPE: I am not going to tell a victim of a murder case we are not going to pursue this to the fullest extent of the law because it cost too much. There are broader costs at stake in terms of public confidence in the criminal justice system and public safety.

Nonetheless, a number of people wonder if the Attorney General is squandering resources.

Former Public Defender Director Mike Skibby says there’s no shortage of ways to spend a few million dollars.

TAPE: training police officers to deal with people with mental illness, training lawyers to handle their cases more effectively, putting more police on the street...or doing better detection of child abuse or domestic abuse. All of those things don’t tend to be very exciting....but there’s no question...those things really give you paybacks in terms of public safety.

Manchester Police Lieutenant Nick Willard understands, in theory, that money could be spent differently.

Willard headed up the Addison investigation.

But he says eliminating the death penalty because of money is a slap in the face to all police officers.

Willard says making it a capital crime to kill a police officer gives people a lot more than a sense of protection.

TAPE: what the community is saying to you is we support you and show you, you matter. That anybody that kills you for being the person that stands between us and evil, they face death themselves.....As a police officer you see that as recognition for your commitment to give your own life for your community.

Expect the value of capital punishment to law enforcement, to public safety and to taxpayers to get a hard look as the state continues its death penalty debate.

For NHPR News, I’m DG.