Updated Reports: California Still the Highest Spender on the Death Penalty

ACLU of Northern California released a new report revealing that California continues to spend more money on the death penalty, even while fewer counties actually send anyone to death row. Only five counties—Alameda, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino—sentenced more than one person to death in 2008, setting themselves apart as the five most active death penalty counties in the state. The population of California's death row has grown by 11 in one year, to a total of 680 people, adding almost $1 million to the annual cost of housing people on death row.

The new report updates last year's groundbreaking reports, The Hidden Death Tax: The Secret Cost of Seeking Execution in California and Death by Geography: A County By County Analysis of the Road to Execution in California.