ABSTRACT

In the Gallup Poll, depending on the year being polled, between 10% and 20% of those who support the death penalty appear to do so because of the cost, and this has apparently changed very little in the past 25 years. A study in Florida by Dave Von Drehle in 1988 concluded that death penalty cases cost as much as $116,700 more at trial and sentencing, $160,000 more for mandatory state reviews, at least $1 million more for appeals, and $312,600 more for jail costs. P. J. Cook examines the costs of the death penalty in North Carolina compared to the cost of noncapital murder cases. Throughout their analysis, Cook talks about the costs related to three groups: complete death penalty guilt and sentencing trials (DP), partial death penalty capital murder trials (PDP), and non-death penalty capital murder trials (NDP). DP trials cost more than five times as much as NDP trials.