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MARCH 5, 2014 | 21

Tyler Michael
Miller appears in
Flathead County
District Court for
his arraignment
in January 2011.
Miller was con-
victed of killing
Jaimi Lynn Hurl-
bert, 35, and her
daughter, Alyssa
Burkett, 15.
BEACON FILE PHOTO

Cumulatively, Montana’s only two tana, Kansas, Colorado and Connecti- “Twenty years ago, use of the death ronism. It is something that at one time
inmates sentenced to die have been on cut — have wrestled with major shifts penalty was increasing. Now it is declin- all countries had in place, and then slow-
death row for 54 years. The costs are ex- toward rejection of the death penalty, ing by almost every measure,” Richard ly but surely countries have turned away
orbitant, according to their attorneys.
with legislators citing both moral and
Dieter, the center’s executive director, from it. They have found better and
Ronald Allen Smith, convicted of a economic reasons, but each bill to abol- said. “The recurrent problems of the more efective ways, less costly ways, of
double homicide in 1983 for the shoot- ish it has been defeated, in some cases by death penalty have made its application dealing with individuals who have com-
ing deaths of two Blackfeet men near narrow margins.
rare, isolated, and often delayed for de- mitted capital crimes.”
East Glacier, an apparent thrill kill, has In the past six years, six other states cades. More states will likely reconsider F
appealed his sentence at every turn, and have repealed the death penalty, reduc- the wisdom of retaining this expensive ACING THE POSSIBILITY OF ITS
he most recently challenged the consti- ing the number of states that allow capi- and inefectual practice.”
irst death penalty trial since 1983
tutionality of Montana’s lethal injection tal punishment to 32.
With a moratorium on executions with the Miller case, the Montana Oice

protocol, efectively suspending all ex- Statistics compiled by the Death pending the legal challenge to the state’s of Public Defenders (OPD) braced for the
ecutions in the state pending the case’s Penalty Information Center in a 2013 lethal injection protocol, Montana is enormous inancial millstone that ac-
outcome.
end-of-year report show that the death poised to be next in line.
companies any capital case.
“We are talking about 31 years, and penalty is an increasingly rareied brand The U.S. Supreme Court struck In the OPD’s irst major budget re-
he has been consistently active in the of punishment in the criminal justice down the death penalty in 1972 after quest of the kind since its inception in
courts the entire time,” Ron Waterman, system, and many believe that it is on ruling that it was “cruel and unusual,” in 2006, the oice asked for and received
an attorney with the American Civil life support.
violation of the Eighth Amendment, but approximately $1 million from the 2011
Liberties Union representing Smith, Last year, executions nationwide fell it was reinstated in 1976.
Montana Legislature speciically to de-

said. “National averages show that ev- below 40 for just the second time since In Montana, three of the state’s four fend death penalty cases.
ery year an individual involved in a capi- 1994, signaling for some the death knell executions have occurred since the The budgetary line item was prompt-
tal case is part of an ongoing appellate of capital punishment, which is increas- death penalty was reinstated; the only ed by Miller’s case, and represented
process the costs are between $100,000 ingly viewed as an outmoded and inef- other execution, a hanging in Missoula, about one-quarter of the $4 million that
and $150,000. I would expect that Ron fective form of retribution — neither occurred in 1943. More than 50 years was added to the agency’s budget; some,
Smith’s case falls within those igures.”
a deterrent for violent criminals nor a passed before the state’s next execution, if not all, of the allocation was obviously
Statutes also require multiple top- cost-saving alternative to incarceration. that of Duncan McKenzie, who was on earmarked to pay for the extensive de-

end, death-penalty-qualiied lawyers, Death sentences have declined by 75 death row for 20 years, receiving eight fense work with Miller, who at the time
experts, and investigators, and trials percent since 1996, when there were 315 stays of execution before the state inally was the only defendant facing a new cap-
stretch weeks, if not months, with lim- executions in the country, according to put him to death.
ital crime in the state.
ited funds available to defray the costs.
the Death Penalty Information Center, “It’s not a crime that is frequently “Essentially that was a million bucks
“In terms of monetary costs a death a nonpartisan group that tracks capital charged,” Waterman, the ACLU attor- to spend on a single case, which is more
penalty case is more expensive than punishment cases.
ney who also represented McKenzie, than my entire budget for operating this
keeping an inmate in prison for life,” Also, public support for the death said. “Before Duncan McKenzie was ex- oice, by a signiicant amount,” Corri-
Corrigan said. “There’s really no doubt penalty as measured in the annual Gal- ecuted more than 50 years had passed gan said.

about that.”
lup poll has declined to 60 percent, its between executions in Montana. I think A death penalty case requires at least
In recent years, four states — Mon-
lowest level in 40 years.
the death penalty is an historical anach-
two jury trials, and often three — one to