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Sunday, September 28, 2008
Ind. Courts - "Finances a factor in capital punishment"
Doulgas Walker has a long story today in the Muncie Star-Press on the use of the death penalty in the various counties. Some quotes:
The role that a county's financial status plays in whether a local prosecutor pursues a death sentence for an accused killer apparently depends on whom you ask -- and perhaps where you live.David Daly, Randolph County prosecutor since 1995, has yet to pursue capital punishment following one of his community's infrequent slayings.
In a largely agricultural county of about 25,000 people, Daly acknowledged whether Randolph County could afford the staggering costs -- perhaps going into the hundreds of thousands of dollars -- of staging a death-penalty trial might be a factor in any future decision.
"I would probably consider finances, unless it was the shooting of a judge or a police officer," which would likely make pursuit of a death sentence a foregone conclusion, he said.
Daly said it's likely he would consult with the county council about the financial impact of pursuing capital punishment.
As a young attorney, Daly spent five years working in the Marion County prosecutor's office, where some staff members specialized in death-penalty cases.
"They have so many more resources" than do prosecutor's offices in smaller counties, he noted.
That being the case, of 103 death sentences issued in Indiana since the state reinstituted capital punishment in 1977, a total of 45 have been issued in the state's two most populated counties, Lake (with 23 death sentences) and Marion (with 22).
Indiana's other 90 counties accounted for the remaining 58 death sentences.
(Many of those sentences were ultimately overturned on appeal, with most inmates being resentenced to lengthy, or life, terms. Over the past 31 years, 19 convicted killers have been executed in the Indiana State Prison's death chamber in Michigan City. About 15 inmates are now on death row.)
Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 28, 2008 09:27 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts