The high cost of killing

An organization called the Urban Institute has found that it cost states and average of $3 million to prosecute a death penalty case compared to $1.1 million for a case where the death penalty is not sought. That's why many states are considering abolishing the death penalty -- not out of humanitarian concerns but out of financial ones. Moves are underway to cut costs by abolishing the death penalty in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and New Hampshire. Bills abolishing the death penalty now have an excellent chance of passage in Maryland, Montana and New Mexico.

Capital cases are expensive because the trials tend to take longer, they typically require more lawyers and more costly expert witnesses, and they are far more likely to lead to multiple appeals. Studies also found that most of these cases end up with the defendant receiving a life sentence anyway. In the last 20 years in Maryland, for example, prosecutors sought the death penalty 162 times. Of those, only five were executed and five more are awaiting execution.

A bill has been introduced in Colorado that would abolish the death penalty and use the savings to create a cold-case unit to investigate the state's 1,400 unsolved murders.

Texas faces budget problems as well but knowing its penchant for killing people -- dispensing frontier justice in these more civilized times -- I doubt if we have enough clear thinking lawmakers to bring this topic up for serious discussion.