Tennessee - Bill making child rape a capital offense would cost $15 million
- From: indigoace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Indigo Ace)
- Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 15:07:45 GMT
From the Kingsport [TN] Times-News--
Bill making child rape a capital offense would cost $15 million
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By HANK HAYES
Times-News
A news release e-mailed by the Tennessee House Republican Caucus on
Wednesday touted state Rep. Matthew Hill pushing legislation that
would elevate child rape from a felony to a capital offense punishable
by death or life imprisonment.
What the release didn't say is how much the bill would cost Tennessee
taxpayers.
Hill, R-Jonesborough, who is up for re-election this year, said in the
release that child rape has a devastating effect on children.
"Statistics show that by the time a child sexual offender is caught
for the first time, they have usually molested six to eight children,"
Hill said in the release. "The monsters who commit this crime deserve
the most severe punishment meted out by our justice system."
According to the state's Fiscal Review Office (FRO), the bill would
cost taxpayers an estimated $14.2 million in incarceration expenses,
nearly $750,000 in recurring costs to hire new public defenders and
prosecutors, and a one-time expense of about $100,000 for new computer
equipment.
"The state incurs substantial out-of-pocket expenses in death-sentence
trials and appeals," the FRO's fiscal note on the bill said. "These
include costs of appointed attorneys, expert witnesses, investigation
and related matters. These additional costs are estimated to exceed
$750,000 in each case."
An average of 64 persons in Tennessee have been convicted of child
rape in each of the last three years, according to the Administrative
Office of the Courts. The average age of each offender is 39 years,
and the life expectancy of each offender is 70 years.
It currently costs the state about $50 a day to house an inmate.
According to FRO, people convicted of child rape currently serve an
average of 20 years.
Hill said the bill - which moved out of a House Criminal Practice
Subcommittee on Tuesday - was brought to him by state Sen. Raymond
Finney, R-Maryville.
"He wanted to see if we could kind of get the debate started and move
it through the process," Hill said of Finney's plans for the bill,
which is headed to the House Judiciary Committee.
Lawmakers on the subcommittee were informed of a state corrections
oversight committee's comment - that the bill could increase the
number of death row defenders and significantly increase the state's
demand for prison beds. Tennessee Supreme Court rules also require the
appointment of two defense attorneys in each death penalty case.
Tennessee has over 100 people on death row, and more than 20 of them
have more than two death sentences, according to the Department of
Corrections.
Tennessee has executed one inmate - Robert Glen Coe for rape and
murder - in the past 45 years. The Coe execution occurred by lethal
injection April 19, 2000, at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution
and cost taxpayers more than $11,000. The estimated cost of executing
an inmate has since moved past $15,000.
For more about the Hill-Finney bill go to www.legislature.state.tn.us
and click on "Legislation." The bill's number is HB 2924.
http://www.timesnews.net/article.dna?_StoryID=3619437
--
Anne
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
.
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