Republican Georgia legislator looking to use fiscal argument to bolster death penalty abolition

In this post around the start of the pandemic, I wondered aloud "Might COVID-19 ultimately bring an end to the death penalty in the United States?".  One point I made in that post was that, amidst economic difficulties, the death penalty might seem an even more problematic use of limited government time and resources.  As I put it in that post: "I think there will be very strong arguments that this punishment is a kind of 'legal luxury' that we really cannot and ought not invest resources in while we try to rebuild after COVID-19."  

I returned to that post this morning upon seeing this new local press piece from Georgia headlined "Georgia GOP lawmaker makes budget argument to abolish death penalty."  Here are excerpts:

A Georgia Republican says he thinks the state House of Representatives is just a dozen votes shy of advancing a bill that would abolish the death penalty. Rep. Brett Harrell of Snellville said Thursday that he thinks highlighting the cost of capital punishment may help win over the support needed, at least in the one chamber.  Harrell, who chairs the influential House Ways and Means Committee, said he intends to push for the funding needed to pay for an analysis of how much Georgia spends to execute people.

“I think this conservative concerns about the death penalty focus is important and to focus on those fiscal costs will be important to us to gain those last few votes necessary to move the issue forward in Georgia,” he said.

The Gwinnett County lawmaker took part in a virtual discussion Thursday that was organized by Conservatives Concerned about the Death Penalty, a national group that argues capital punishment is inconsistent with conservative principles.  He appeared along with two Republicans from Ohio and Wyoming. Hannah Cox, the group’s senior national manager, called the death penalty a “failed big government program that fails to measure up to our values of limiting government, adhering to fiscal responsibility and protecting the sanctity of human life.”  She said most of the costs stem from the intensive trials required for a capital murder case – and not, as most assume, the lengthy appellate process.

She said the squeeze on state budgets due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought renewed scrutiny to the cost.  Georgia just recently cut 10% from its budget, partly because of declining revenues due to the viral outbreak.

Harrell sponsored a bipartisan bill last year that would have ended the death penalty in Georgia, requiring instead life in prison without parole for those sitting on death row.  The bill never cleared a committee.  Georgia is among the 25 states that have the death penalty.

Now, he’s sharpening his fiscal line of attack, calling the death penalty an “incredibly expensive proposition.” He pointed to an example in the 1990s that left local officials jailed for a day in Lincoln County when they refused to foot the bill for a second capital murder trial after the courts overturned a death sentence. At the time, the case had already cost the rural county about $100,000; the county’s entire budget was $2.2 million.

“Evidence suggests – study after study – that it is not an actual deterrent to crime and we have alternatives, such as life without parole,” Harrell said. “As someone who is fiscally conservative and prefers a small government consistent with efficient implementation of government, the death penalty fails on all those measures.”

He also noted that Georgia has exonerated six people since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. “Someone who is also a social conservative and someone who is pro-life should also see the death penalty as very problematic in that the likelihood is very great that innocent have been executed as well,” Harrell said.

Because many of my criticisms of many aspects of the criminal justice system are situated in the concern that it does not involve "efficient implementation of government," I am always drawn to these kinds of arguments.  And, as mentioned before, I think the misused resources arguments against the death penalty are especially strong during a time of national crisis when monies would seem better spent seeking to help those in need rather than in trying to secure and preserve a death sentence that likely never will be carried out.