Murderer's Last Plea: It's Too Expensive to Kill Me

Conn. killer hopes to avoid execution
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2010 5:51 PM CDT
Murderer's Last Plea: It's Too Expensive to Kill Me
This June 2007 file photo shows Dr. William Petit with his daughters Michaela, front, Hayley, center rear, and his wife, Jennifer Hawke-Petit.   (AP Photo/William Petit, File)

With their client convicted in a ghastly triple murder of a mother and her two young daughters, the lawyers for Steven Hayes have mustered what seems like a grasping-at-straws argument to keep him from being executed: It's too expensive. When the penalty phase of the trial begins, the lawyers will call an expert witness to make the case that it costs taxpayers far more to execute an inmate than to keep him imprisoned for life—$3 million to $1 million by one estimate, taking into account court costs. AP has more.
(More Steven Hayes stories.)

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