[Deathpenalty] death penalty news-----TEXAS, CONN., PENN., GA., OHIO, NEB., ORE., USA

[Rick Halperin]

Mov. 15



TEXAS:

Human, monetary cost-cutting


There is little common ground between those who are pro-death penalty, and the 
abolitionists. If we assume, however, that only guilty people should be 
punished and that taxpayers want to save money, the system can be improved.

Cost is always an issue. In 1992 The Dallas Morning News calculated the costs 
of an average Texas execution was $2.3 million compared to $750,000 for life 
imprisonment. Since 1992, the cost of lawyers, extra time in jury selection, 
inmate housing, and appeals has risen substantially. Nueces County has had 16 
executed offenders which ranks as 5th most in the state. San Patricio, Kleberg 
and Aransas counties have each had 1. Nueces County currently has three 
offenders on death row, which includes Larry Hatten who has been sitting there 
since January 1996 for shooting a 5-year-old boy. Neither Hatten, Richard 
Vasquez, nor John Ramirez, the other area death row offenders, has as of yet, 
received an execution date.

Here are some suggestions:

Videotape all confessions. Many states and the U.S. Department of Justice 
already require this, but not Texas. According to the Innocence Project, false 
confessions were a factor in 25 percent of convictions overturned by DNA 
testing. Younger offenders, those who have mental or emotional defects, those 
"under the influence," or faced with law enforcement pressure, have all falsely 
confessed. In the past, implementation of videotape would have been costly and 
cumbersome, but smartphones, tablets and the like have foreclosed any excuses.

Regional mental health panels: If you think lawyers are expensive, try hiring a 
medical expert witness. When the mental state of the accused is an issue, 
experts are hired by both prosecution and defense. However, as most capital 
murder cases involve indigents, taxpayers have a dog, or perhaps are the dog, 
on both sides of the fight. Smaller counties often have no resident experts. 
Although we may think medical professionals are unbiased, there are lists of 
experts who always testify for just one side, and their testimony is not 
contrary to their paycheck. Regional, neutral panels nominated by their peers 
would be an improvement. They would review the defendant's interview and other 
evidence, yet only one would testify. While not totally dispositive of other 
experts, their objective views would carry overwhelming credibility.

National standards for scientific testing: A few years ago I defended a murder 
case in Corpus Christi where the main issue was the defendant's location. The 
state's expert used cellphone "pings" and tower locations to demonstrate that 
the defendant was in the wrong spot at the right time. We had an attorney who 
rattled off scientific terms and numbers that no one understood, resulting in a 
costly, hung jury and retrial. Other "science" such as hair microscopy, bite 
mark analysis, and shoe print comparisons, have all resulted in errors. Faulty 
analysis is behind 47 % of wrongful convictions, according to the Innocence 
Project. Let's set some standards!

Fair division of costs: To "get away with (capital) murder" in Texas or at 
least not be executed, commit your crime in an average or small county. When I 
was Willacy County District Attorney I feared capital cases, knowing we 
couldn't afford them, either in cash or personnel. A Texas Tribune study found 
more than 1/2 (135) of Texas counties have never executed anyone, and 60 % of 
the death sentences in the past 5 years have originated from 2 % of our 
counties. A check of the Texas execution "waiting" list confirms very few small 
to medium counties pursue the death penalty. The state, not the county, needs 
to pick up the tab.

Without more safeguards, innocent people inevitably will be executed. Each day 
we are paying for the 60 % of death row inmates who have been there more than 
15 years, as well as for 78-year-old Jack Smith, and 10 other inmates who 
waited more than 30 years.

We can't placate those with extreme positions, but we can cut costs, improve 
our justice system, and enhance our reputation as a state.

(source: opinion, Steve Fischer----Corpus Christi Caller-Times)






CONNECTICUT:

Komisarjevsky lawyer says uncovered police calls should be added to Cheshire 
case


A lawyer for convicted killer Joshua Komisarjevsky is filing to rectify the 
record in his case after additional police calls from the deadly 2007 home 
invasion were found in a cabinet by town employees.

The calls show police may have tried to stop Komisarjevsky's partner, Steven 
Hayes, as he drove back from a bank where he had forced Jennifer Hawke-Petit to 
withdraw money.

The motion, filed Friday morning, claims the calls "support the defense's 
theory at the guilt-innocence phase that the police response in this case was 
inadequate" and provide evidence of Komisarjevsky's mental state when he was 
questioned by police.

Moira Buckley, Komisarjevsky's attorney, declined to comment Friday and 
deferred to the motion.

Komisarjevsky and Hayes were both convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 
the 2007 Petit family home invasion. The sentences were handed down before 2012 
when the state abolished the death penalty.

An August state Supreme Court decision found the death penalty unconstitutional 
and spared inmates on death row from execution.

Thousands of calls recorded on CDs were found by town employees in a cabinet 
and provided to Buckley in November of last year. In a motion to file a record 
rectification after the deadline, Buckley writes that going through those calls 
took months and that some were difficult to understand.

A call cited in the motion was from a police dispatcher to a police sergeant 
and later to other police units to intercept Hayes while driving from a Bank of 
America to the Petit home.

"Despite the explicit instructions given to Sgt. Cote, neither he nor any other 
police officer stopped or in any way intercepted the Chrysler Pacifica on its 
way back to 300 Sorghum Mill Drive from the Bank of America," Buckley said in 
the motion.

The calls also include police officers commenting on the demeanor of the 2 men, 
with 1 officer saying that Hayes "just looked evil" and another calling 
Komisarjevsky "simple."

Komisarjevsky's lawyers argued that it was Hayes that incited the killings.

The timeline of events and police actions is important, Buckley wrote, since it 
also impacts the credibility of police testimony in the case. That, in turn, 
could change how Komisarjevsky's motives are viewed.

"At trial, (Komisarjevsky) did not dispute his involvement in crimes that 
occurred that day and, in fact, upon his arrest gave a detailed statement to 
the police admitting his involvement," Buckley wrote. "He did, however, dispute 
that he was guilty of capital felony, maintaining that he did not intend that 
anyone be killed."

(source: Meriden Record-Journal)






PENNSYLVANIA:

Death warrant signed in Pennsylvania


An execution scheduled for next month will likely not take place, as a 
moratorium on the death penalty in Pennsylvania remains in effect.

The execution of 46 year-old Antayne Robinson in connection with a 1996 murder, 
has been scheduled for December 18th. The death warrant was signed, not by 
Governor Tom Wolf, but by Corrections Secretary John Wetzel.

"The law specifically says that if it's not signed by the governor, I believe 
its within 30-days, then the Secretary of Corrections shall schedule it. So 
that's in essence what I am signing is to schedule the execution," Wetzel said.

Governor Wolf has placed executions on hold until a commission studying the 
death penalty in Pennsylvania issues its findings.

In the meantime, Wetzel says he will continue to follow the law and sign 
execution orders, leaving the rest to the Governor and the courts.

(source: WITF news)






GEORGIA----impending execution

Debate continues whether Marcus Ray Johnson murdered 35-year-old woman

Facing just days before his clien's execution, the lawyer for convicted 
murderer Marcus Ray Johnson is adamant his client did not kill Angela Sizemore 
21 years ago.

The state and the victim's family say it's past time for justice to be served.

On Wednesday the state Parole Board will be asked to decide. If the board does 
not grant clemency, Johnson is to be executed Thursday at 7 p.m.

Brian Kammer, a veteran in post-conviction capital defense, says his client's 
case is unlike others he has had.

"The lack of physical evidence is extremely troubling," said Kammer. "The 
prosecution compensated for the lack of direct evidence by making extremely 
inflammatory arguments to the jury."

The trial judge noted to the Georgia Supreme Court after the trial that the 
evidence was "sufficient to sustain the conviction, does not foreclose all 
doubt respecting the defendant's guilt."

But he also wrote a death sentence was appropriate.

Former Daugherty County District Attorney Ken Hodges, says claims of Johnson's 
innocence are "little more than hogwash, unsupported lies just to save his 
soul."

Johnson admitted to police he had sexual relations with Angela Sizemore, a 
woman he met in an Albany bar just hours before her battered and bloody body 
was discovered on March 24, 1994.

But, he said, she was alive when he left her sitting in a field and crying.

However, Hodges says there is no question Johnson did it.

"He raped her. He mutilated her body and he killed her. About that I have no 
doubt," he said. "You'd have to be less than human to do what he did to her."

The victim's family agrees with Hodges.

"They are grasping at straws," said Sizemore's daughter Katherine Barker, who 
was 5-years-old when her mother was killed. "There is evidence that puts 
Johnson at the crime and not just eye witnesses.... I'm not a blood-thirsty 
person but I do believe my mom deserves justice."

Johnson was shooting pool when an inebriated Sizemore walked into a west Albany 
bar just after midnight that fateful night.

They met. They drank. They danced. And after spending a while kissing in a back 
booth, they left the bar for a nearby field where they had sex.

A few hours later, a man walking his dog discovered the 35-year-old woman's 
battered and bloody body on her SUV, parked miles away beside a retention pond.

Kammer said there would have been "substantial amounts of blood" on her killer 
and not the single drop they found on Johnson's leather jacket.

Johnson, now 50, told police he couldn't remember much from those early morning 
hours because he was drunk. He said he woke up on the front yard of his house 
after daybreak.

In 2011, Johnson came within hours of execution before a Dougherty County judge 
stopped it to hold a hearing about a box of untested evidence that had been 
found 17 years after the crime.

During that hearing, witness Janice Parsons provided information Johnson's 
lawyers said suggested someone else could have killed Sizemore.

Parsons said her boyfriend and Sizemore were long-time partners in a drug 
business. She said her boyfriend gave Sizemore $3,000 in cash for a load of 
marijuana that she had brought from Florida to be sold in Albany. The cash was 
never recovered.

That suggestion angers the victim's daughter.

"My mom was a good mom," Baker said. "He's making her out to be this person 
wheeling and dealing. If it was a drug deal gone bad, who would want to torture 
my mom? Johnson tortured my mom death."

(source: myajc.com)



OHIO:

Who will be executed last in Ohio?


Ohio conducted its most recent execution in January 2014, putting to death 
Dennis McGuire for the rape and murder of a pregnant woman. The procedure did 
not go as planned. The state used an untested and untried combination of drugs 
for the lethal injection. McGuire gasped and snorted, death arriving in almost 
twice the time expected.

The state has been searching for a better mix, something closer to what it used 
in the past, before drug-makers chose, in effect, not to participate in death 
sentences. The pursuit has come up short so far. So officials have put off any 
executions until November 2017 at the earliest.

Which leads to the question: Will Ohio ever execute again?

State Reps. Nickie Antonio, a Lakewood Democrat, and Niraj Antani, a Miamisburg 
Republican, argue the answer should be "no." They have joined in legislation 
that would make Ohio the 20th state to abolish the death penalty (7 taking the 
step during the past 10 years).

Antonio makes many familiar - and persuasive - points about a system broken 
beyond repair. Antani takes a different approach, offering what he views as a 
conservative case for repealing the death penalty.

He stresses the limits of government and applies heavy doses of skepticism and 
distrust in weighing what it can achieve. Thus, he looks at the nine Ohio men 
exonerated while sitting on death row, an average of more than 21 years 
wrongfully imprisoned, and doubts that government has the capacity to perform 
at the high level required.

As he told the House Judiciary Committee last month, " ... our flawed death 
penalty system leaves too high of a chance that we may execute an innocent 
person."

There is something utopian about the premise of the death penalty. The 
punishment is irreversible, and thus, the state presumes that each time it will 
get the result right.

Justice Stephen Breyer of the U.S. Supreme Court explored this thinking in a 
lengthy, informed and illuminating dissent last summer. He concluded that the 
time has come for the courts to look again at whether the death penalty 
violates the constitutional ban on "cruel and unusual punishments."

Among other things, Breyer finds the death penalty cruel in its lack of 
reliability, or just what concerns Niraj Antani. Since 2002, the number of 
exonerations of those on death row has risen to 115, some having spent more 
than 30 years in prison. The most decisive advance has been DNA testing. Breyer 
cites research that calculates an error rate of 4 % in capital cases from 1973 
to 2004. That puts the state at risk of being in the untenable position of 
killing an innocent person or committing the act it aims to punish.

In 1972, the Supreme Court struck down the death penalty, Justice Potter 
Stewart famously concurring that "death sentences are cruel and unusual in the 
same way that being struck by lightning is cruel and unusual." The court 
reinstated the punishment 4 years later, holding that new procedures, standards 
and requirements would address the problem of its arbitrary application.

Breyer lays out how those good intentions have proved no match for hard 
realities. The court wanted the death penalty reserved for the "worst of the 
worst." Instead, death sentences are driven by a range of factors, including 
racial bias, geography, the quality of defense counsel and political pressures.

Still, the tinkering continues. Consider the Ohio task force put together by 
Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor to recommend ways to improve the death penalty. 
Its 56 proposals, delivered last year, are mostly sound. They also appear no 
match for the larger problem.

That includes the excessive delays between sentencing and execution. In 1960, 
the gap was 2 years, then 11 years in 2004 and now close to 18. Might it be 
narrowed to something closer to 5 decades ago?

Breyer frames the dilemma: Accelerate the process, and the risk of a grievous 
error increases. Allow the current delays, and the punishment loses any chance 
of a deterrent effect, let alone timely retribution, families and friends of 
victims waiting decades for the closing event.

That helps explain why 30 states either do not have a death penalty or have not 
had an execution in 8 years. Or perhaps why polls show a majority of Americans 
prefer the option of life in prison without parole.

Justice Breyer sees the shrinking presence of the death penalty as making it 
more unusual. And he doesn't address the higher cost. It is enough that in 
2013, 8 countries conducted more than 10 executions: Yemen, China, Iran, Iraq, 
Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan and us.

(source: Michael Douglas is the Beacon Journal editorial page editor)






NEBRASKA:

Death penalty ?petition drive was most successful near Norfolk, site of 2002 
murders that put 3 on death row


In August, death penalty supporters plunked down the results of their 3-month 
petition drive a day before the official deadline.

It was a bold move calculated to show how strongly voters supported their 
cause.

But it could have come far sooner, according to a World-Herald analysis of 
petition signatures.

Nebraskans for the Death Penalty needed just 30 days to collect the roughly 
57,000 valid signatures - 5? % of all registered voters - necessary to put the 
issue on the ballot.

In 2 months, the group amassed twice that amount, enough to put the death 
penalty repeal on hold.

The World-Herald's analysis shows that the biggest successes came in and around 
Norfolk, the site of the 2002 attempted bank robbery that left 5 Nebraskans 
dead. 3 of the 10 men on Nebraska's death row were sentenced in that crime.

In Norfolk's Madison County, 26 % of registered voters signed. In Pierce 
County, just 3 miles north of Norfolk, 35 % of registered voters signed - the 
highest rate in the state. Knox, Antelope, Wayne and Stanton Counties all had 
above-average turnout rates as well.

"That's almost mind-boggling," said Chris Peterson, a spokesman for Nebraskans 
for the Death Penalty. "There's incredible passion in northeast Nebraska for 
this issue, and it's understandable why."

Peterson said the organization did daily counts to ensure it hit the benchmarks 
to put the matter up to a vote and to put the law on hold until that election.

But it was sometimes difficult to gauge whether a signature would be counted by 
election officials. If a record didn't include a person's date of birth, or had 
an address that didn't match a person's voter registration address, Nebraskans 
for the Death Penalty excluded it from its unofficial tally.

The group also had to get 5 percent of registered voters to sign in 38 
counties, which was another reason the campaign lasted so long, Peterson said.

"We were very conservative," Peterson said. "That's part of why we ended up 
turning in 166,000 signatures. We wanted to make sure we had a healthy margin 
of error."

The success of the petition drive means voters will decide next November 
whether to keep the repeal or reinstate the death penalty.

All told, the petition effort collected signatures from 92 of Nebraska's 93 
counties - skipping only McPherson County, population 500. More than 10 % of 
registered voters signed a petition in 74 counties.

Having a connection to death row crimes didn't always equate to higher 
participation rates.

2 death row inmates, Raymond Mata and Jeffrey Hessler, were convicted of 
murders in Scotts Bluff County. Yet just 7 % of registered voters there signed 
the petitions.

Peterson said it was harder to develop an organization there because of its 
location far from the main offices in Omaha and Lincoln.

3 death row inmates were convicted of crimes in Douglas County, where 10 % of 
registered voters signed.

Peterson said the lower signing rates in the urban counties of Douglas, 
Lancaster and Sarpy may have been because of the presence there of activists 
against the death penalty.

Dan Parsons, a spokesman for Nebraskans for Public Safety, said it makes sense 
that signature rates were lower where his volunteers were arguing for the other 
side of the issue. Polls, he said, show that support for the death penalty 
falls when other factors are considered.

Anecdotally, he said, it appeared that death penalty advocates spent less time 
in urban areas, as well.

Parsons found special meaning in the signature rates for a specific subset of 
voters: those senators who voted on the repeal in the first place.

Not one senator who voted to repeal the death penalty in the final vote flipped 
to sign the petition.

But not all senators who voted against the repeal signed the petition. 11 
signed, and 8 did not.

"It would not surprise me that some of the senators who were not with us during 
the debate may be now having s2nd thoughts," Parsons said.

The World-Herald reached 5 of the 8 senators who supported the death penalty in 
the final vote on the matter - whether to override a veto from Gov. Pete 
Ricketts.

None said there was a change of heart.

"I just felt like the Legislature had made that statement on the part of the 
body, and I'm abiding by that," said State Sen. John Stinner of Gering. He 
added: "Even though I was a loser in this situation, I personally felt like we 
had all weighed in."

State Sen. Jerry Johnson of Wahoo also didn't sign, though he had a simple 
explanation.

"Basically, nobody approached me," he said.

If he had seen someone circulating the petition, he would have signed, he said.

State Sen. Jim Scheer of Norfolk supported the campaign, even loaning office 
space for the effort. Scheer said he was confident he signed the petition, but 
his name did not appear in the records The World-Herald obtained.

Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, a political science professor at the University of 
Nebraska-Lincoln, said the success of the petition campaign doesn't necessarily 
mean smooth sailing for the effort to reinstate the death penalty.

The issue will be on the ballot during a presidential election, she said, which 
means higher turnout - especially among Democrats.

At the same time, she said, the death penalty issue isn't necessarily driven by 
political affiliation.

The issue also is fundamentally different from petition drives around the 
country. In other states, she said, petition drives tend to be successful based 
almost entirely on how strong funding is.

"But this one, it happened quickly. There wasn't this buildup we often have in 
other states, drawn out and driven by external folks. This struck me as much 
more, well, people feel strongly about it."

While the petition drive was a huge success, she said there's still plenty of 
time for opponents to get out their message and change minds.

The death penalty opposition will be taking the same arguments it made with 
lawmakers to the general public. Chief among them, she said, is whether a death 
sentence can even be carried out.

"I don't think it's a slam-dunk," Theiss-Morse said. "If the state can't get 
the drugs they need by the time the election hits, that's going to be a real 
blow to that side."

(source: Omaha World-Herald)






OREGON:

Death or life in prison for serial killer?----Rogers would waive right to 
appeal if he got life sentence, attorney says


With prosecutors asking that serial killer Dayton Leroy Rogers be sentenced to 
death for a fourth time, defense attorneys Friday asked jurors to give him life 
in prison to bring final resolution to a 3-decades-old legal process.

Rogers has been sentenced to death 3 times, and each time the sentence has been 
overturned on various legal grounds.

1 of Oregon's most prolific serial killers, Rogers tortured and killed several 
women in the 1980s, binding some of them, stabbing them repeatedly and in 
several cases cutting off their feet or other body parts.

Now 62, quiet and balding, the former lawn-mower repairman was dubbed the 
Molalla Forest Killer because the bodies were discovered in a forest in the 
small town of Molalla.

During Rogers' current sentencing trial in Clackamas County Circuit Court, 
defense attorney Richard L. Wolf said Rogers would waive his right to an appeal 
if he got a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.

Wolf said sending Rogers to prison for life would give a resolution to victims' 
families and avoid costs of more legal proceedings. If Rogers is sentenced to 
death, Wolf said, various appeals could take up another 30 years, cost about $3 
million and continue to drag families into court.

"We stand before you today not to deny or excuse Mr. Rogers' crimes," Wolf told 
the jury. "We're asking you ... to stop the endless courtroom proceedings and 
permit (the families) to finally move forward, rather than seemingly move 
forward then backward ... stuck in a never-ending cycle of trial and automatic 
appeal."

Wolf said Rogers had only 4 minor infractions during the past 27 years in 
prison. The possibility he'll be a victim in prison is much greater than that 
of him victimizing others, Wolf said.

Wolf also argued Rogers' traumatic childhood - including sexual and physical 
abuse - and the brain damage he suffered should be considered as mitigating 
evidence.

Prosecutor Bryan Brock said Rogers should get the death penalty because his 
acts were heinous and deliberate. He carefully planned his attacks and was 
driven by sexual gratification from inflicting pain, Brock said.

Rogers was a "patient and cunning individual" who lived a double life, Brock 
said. On one hand, he had a wife, son, owned a house in Woodburn, attended 
church and ran a successful small business. On the other, he drove to Portland 
to solicit prostitutes, plied them with alcohol, and took them to remote 
locations where he tied them up, violently bit them and cut them.

Those who resisted were killed and had their feet cut off while still alive, 
said Brock. He showed the jury a hacksaw recovered from Rogers.

"Violence equals pleasure. He cut off their feet for his pleasure," said Brock, 
adding that Rogers later burned the dead women's clothes in his stove and 
cleaned out his blood-soaked truck.

Brock said Rogers, who has spent most of the past 27 years in prison 
segregation, was a sexual sadist unfit to live in the general prison 
population.

Rogers was convicted of 6 killings in 1989, and each of 3 juries has sentenced 
him to death.

The state Supreme Court struck down his death sentences in 1992, 2000 and 2012. 
The first time was to comply with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidated 
Oregon's death penalty law. In 2000, the Oregon high court ruled that the jury 
incorrectly considered only the options of death and life in prison with the 
possibility of parole. There should have been a 3rd choice: life without the 
chance of parole.

In 2012, the justices said jury selection was done improperly and the judge 
incorrectly allowed evidence of Rogers' gay experiences as a teenager.

(source: Associated Press)






USA:

U.S. death penalties, executions slow as capital punishment is squeezed


Capital punishment in the United States has moved into the slow lane, with the 
number of executions and new death sentences likely to hit lows not seen for 
more than 20 years.

The last 2 executions of the year are set to be carried out next week, with 
Texas scheduled to put convicted murderer Raphael Holiday to death on Wednesday 
and Georgia scheduled to execute convicted murderer Marcus Johnson on Thursday.

If those lethal injections proceed, there will have been 27 executions in the 
United States in 2015. That would be the least since 1991, before "a get tough 
on crime" movement swept the country and led executions to hit 98 in 1999, the 
highest since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

The death penalty, which is the law in 31 states, has been hit by the left and 
right in 2015. Court battles and a scramble to secure execution drugs after a 
sales ban a few years ago imposed by makers, mostly in Europe, have left about 
8 states, most notably Texas, Florida and Missouri, as those that conduct 
executions. In 1999, 20 states put people to death.

Last year nationwide, there were 73 new death sentences and that number is set 
to drop by at least a third this year, according to the Death Penalty 
Information Center.

Oklahoma, one of the most active death penalty states, has put a halt on 
executions after mistakes in protocols that led to a flawed execution in 2014 
and the delivery of the wrong drug to the death chamber this year.

The high costs of prosecutions and the option of life in prison without the 
possibility of parole are also cited as major drivers for the decline.

The costs of a death penalty prosecution, with appeals, investigations and 
other items, can be at least double those of housing an inmate for life and are 
usually far higher, according to data cited by the Marshall Project, a 
nonprofit newsgroup that focuses on U.S. criminal justice.

DROP IN DEATH SENTENCES

Texas and Virginia have instituted changes in the way death penalty cases are 
taken through courts that have led to decreased prosecutions. Texas, with 530 
executions, has put to death more inmates than any other state since the death 
penalty was reinstated and Virginia has executed the highest percentage of its 
death row inmates.

Those states have instituted reforms in recent years to provide more resources 
for death penalty defenses and increased their access to evidence.

"Both states have changed the way in which indigent capital defense is 
provided. Counsel makes a huge difference," said Robert Dunham, executive 
director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital 
punishment but whose data is used by both sides in the debate.

So far this year, Texas has had three new death penalty convictions and is on 
track for its lowest number since the penalty was reinstated. Virginia has had 
no new death sentences. In 1999, Virginia had seven new sentences and Texas 48.

Due to the costs, many prosecutors have become more selective about taking 
capital punishment cases to trial.

Death penalty advocate Robert Blecker, a professor at New York Law School, said 
money should not be a factor.

"The death penalty should not be a utilitarian issue in terms of weighing the 
costs against the benefits, but rather an issue simply of justice, of who 
deserves it," he said.

Next year, voters in conservative Nebraska are set to approve or dismiss a move 
by Republican lawmakers, who this year made it the 1st Republican-controlled 
state in more than 40 years to abolish the death penalty.

The lawmakers said the state should get out of the death penalty process due to 
high costs and the unreliability of the government to carry out the process 
correctly.

Another Republican-controlled state, Arkansas, tried to resume executions this 
year after a 10-year hiatus but has been hit with lawsuits that could take 
years to settle over its protocols and choice of execution drugs.

"The long-term trends both for executions and for new death sentences show the 
death penalty in decline. There may be from time to time bumps both up and down 
but the long-term trend is clear," Dunham said.

(source: Reuters)