Murder victims' families say death penalty exacts toll on their lives

Published: 2008-03-12

ANNAPOLIS, Md. (CNS) -- Armed with a new study that shows the death penalty has cost Maryland taxpayers at least $186 million, opponents of capital punishment urged a Senate committee to ban the death penalty in Maryland or at least commission a study to look at the issue. Family members of murder victims also testified at the March 6 Judiciary Committee hearing, outlining how the death penalty has exacted a painful toll on their lives. John Roman, senior research associate at the Urban Institute in Washington and author of the study commissioned by the Abell Foundation, told lawmakers it costs the state about $3 million to seek and obtain the death penalty. That is about $1.9 million more than the costs of a murder case in which no death penalty is sought. The study examined 162 murders between 1978 and 1999 that became death penalty prosecutions. Democratic Sen. Lisa Gladden, chief sponsor of a repeal of the death penalty, said $186 million could be put to much better uses. "What could we purchase with that?" she asked. "We could cover all the uninsured. We could provide tuition assistance or drug treatment two or three times over."

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