A recent report to the Committee on Defender Services of the Judicial Conference of the United States by Jon Gould and Lisa Greenman provided an update on the costs of representation in federal death penalty cases. The report examined all cases in which the federal death penalty was authorized by the U.S. Attorney General between 1998 and 2004. The authors found that "The median cost of a case in which the Attorney General authorized seeking the death penalty was nearly eight times greater than the cost of a case that was eligible for capital prosecution but in which the death penalty was not authorized." (emphasis added). The report found that the median cost for defense representation in a death case that went to trial was $465,602, including $101,592 for experts. If the authorized case was settled by a plea, the median cost was $200,933, still far greater than the median cost of a death-eligible case in which the death penalty was not sought-- $44,809. In other words, it is the seeking of the death penalty that considerably raises the costs, even if the case results in a plea bargain and no trial. These figures do not include prosecution and judicial costs .
According to a new report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) entitled, "Slamming the Courthouse Doors: Denial of Access to Justice and Remedy in America," many states severely restrict access to justice for capital defendants and limit the availability of remedies to correct errors. The problem of inadequate counsel continues to pervade death penalty systems across the country: “Few states provide adequate funds to compensate lawyers for their work or to investigate cases properly. In addition to inadequate funding, the majority of death-penalty states lack adequate competency standards. Many states require only minimal training and experience for attorneys handling death penalty cases, and in some cases capital defense attorneys fail to meet the minimum guidelines for capital defense set by the American Bar Association (ABA),” according to the ACLU. The report also states that the absence of a right to counsel in post-conviction appeals leaves capital defendants with few options to address serious errors during their trial. 
A shortage of qualified criminal defense lawyers in California has caused major delays in the state’s capital punishment system. Nearly half of those sentenced to death in California are waiting for the state to appoint them a post-conviction attorney. Death row inmates wait an average of 10-12 years. The long delay is attributed to the lack of experienced lawyers to take on this part of the appeals process. The California Supreme Court requires that lawyers have experience in trial and appellate court. Criminal defense attorneys also attribute the scarcity to inadequate state funding. University of California at Berkeley law professor Elisabeth Semel said that an investigation for post-conviction cases can cost about $250,000, which includes expenses related to expert witnesses and travel. The current state budget for an investigation is $50,000 for an inmate. Some experts believe that the shortage of defense lawyers will only be met when the state expands resources like the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, where lawyers have access to paid investigators and paralegals. California has the largest death row population in the country, with more than 700 inmates.