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22 | MARCH 5, 2014
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determine whether a defendant is guilty “The Montana Legislature should

of the crime, another to determine be eliminating waste in our system,
whether aggravating circumstances ex- and here it is allocating millions of dol-
ist to justify capital punishment, and lars to defend death penalty cases while
still another (called a penalty hearing) it makes signiicant cuts in other areas
at which prosecutors present additional that negatively afect thousands of Mon-
evidence to support the defendant’s ex- tanans,” she said.
ecution.
More than a dozen states have found
At the penalty hearing, the defense that the death penalty is up to 10 times

team must call on a mitigation specialist more expensive than sentences of life or
whose job it is to gather facts in support life without parole, according to Kirby.
of any mitigating circumstances that A 2002 study by Dartmouth College
might be relevant to the case — circum- and the National Bureau of Economic
stances usually precluded from being Research, titled “The Budgetary Reper-
admitted at a criminal trial. If a judge cussions of Capital Convictions,” found
agrees that mitigating circumstances that the costs of the death penalty are

exist, thereby countering the aggravat- borne primarily by increasing taxes,
ing factors, the defendant may avoid the with county budgets bearing the brunt
death penalty by receiving a sentence of of the burden.
life without parole.
“Every legislative session in recent
Groups that advocate abolishing the years has brought forward bills to elimi-
death penalty say the amount of time nate the death penalty, and every time it
invested in capital cases could be bet- Jaimi Hurlbert, 35, and her 15-year-old daughter Alyssa Burkett were shot and killed on Dec. 25, 2010.
seems to gain more ground,” Corrigan
ter spent investigating and prosecuting said. “So even in a state like Montana, COURTESY PHOTO

other cases.
which historically supports capital pun- not conducted a comprehensive study Arnold, a popular teacher in the small
During the 2011 Montana Legis- ishment, there is a push to get rid of the examining what costs the state incurs Bakken oil patch town of Sidney.
lature, the Montana Abolition Coali- death penalty.”
in death penalty cases, studies in other “We told them at the time that it
tion actively supported Senate Bill 185, Sheehy, who represented Miller, is states suggest it is substantial.
wasn’t going to be enough money to
which would have abolished the death on a short list of lawyers in Montana The 2013 Legislature allocated an cover it,” Gillespie said. “At the end of
penalty and replaced it with a sentence who possess the training, background additional $1 million for the biennium the day everybody recognized that the
of life without parole. In 2013, a coali- and qualiications required to repre- to the OPD for capital cases alone, and capital case funding is going to be treat-

tion of Democrats and Republicans sent a defendant charged with a capital Richard “Fritz” Gillespie, chair of the ed somewhat like ire suppression — we
again raised the issue, contending that ofense. Sheehy has represented defen- state’s Public Defender Commission, don’t know what it is going to cost, so if
the high cost of litigating death penalty dants in 10 capital punishment cases acknowledged that it likely will not be we run out of it and have to use funds
cases taxes the state’s budget for decades during his decades-long career.
enough as the state is currently seeking from another source they will put it in a
and warrants repeal. However, the bill “With the number I’ve done it’s the death penalty against 24-year-old subsidy.”
failed in committee.
enough for a lifetime,” Sheehy said. “It’s Michael Keith Spell, who faces delib- Kirby views the state funding of de-
Jennifer Kirby, who coordinates exhausting and it wreaks an emotional erate homicide charges in the January fense teams in capital cases as a tremen-
the coalition, said while Montana has
toll on the lawyers and the families.”
2012 kidnapping and murder of Sherry
dous waste of resources.

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