I am looking for data on the costs of prosecuting murder cases. Ideally, from police called to the scene through sending the bad guy to prison. I have such data or Clark County, Nevada, but I have not had much luck finding this data for other locales.
In case you are wondering: a think tank asked me to put together a study of the cost benefits of treating the mentally ill before they advance from public nuisance to murder.
These aren't perfect compilations, but hopefully there are some data available within them that helps some...
ReplyDeletehttps://www.azag.gov/sites/default/files/sites/all/docs/Criminal/ccc/Attachment%20D%20-%20Data%20Set%20III.pdf
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/northcarolina.pdf
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf
Good luck with the research!
Clayton,
ReplyDeleteNot as an answer to your question, but as an aside, some Idaho counties routinely avoid charging even egregious capital offenses as death penalty cases because they do not want to spend the money.
Since, regardless of the rhetoric, there is no such thing as life without parole (a judge's whim can overturn that) many murderers return to the streets.
I am aware of the Idaho counties that refuse to charge capital crimes. Realistically, the chances of getting a death penalty carried out are so small, why spend an extra several million dollars when the chances are pretty small that it will ever happen?
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