Fewer Indiana Prosecutors Pursuing Death Penalty

BLOOMINGTON -- Owen County Prosecutor  Don VanDerMoere says he hasn’t decided whether to pursue the death penalty for the man accused of raping and killing 1-year-old Shaylyn Ammerman.

In order for a case to qualify for the death penalty, it must meet at least one of 18 circumstances outlined by the general assembly. One of those circumstances is the murder of a child.

The number of death penalty cases in Indiana has declined over the past five years.

“We used to average between 25 and 40 death penalty cases filed each year throughout the state,” says Paula Sites, assistant executive director of the Indiana Public Defender Council. “Over the last 10 years our average is actually fewer than two per year.”

Sites says one reason for the drop in death penalty cases could be the cost.

A 2010 report from the Legislative Services Agency found it costs more than ten times as much, on average, to prosecute a death penalty case to the end than a life without parole case.

“Only about one in five death penalty cases that are filed actually result in a death sentence,” Sites says. “The rest are usually resolved by plea agreement, most often with a sentence of life without parole.”

VanDerMoere says he could make a decision on whether to pursue the death penalty in the Shaylyn Ammerman case within the next two months.

The case could go to trial as early as August.