The study involved interviews with appropriate Federal officials and officials from 34 States, an analysis of case records, and a literature review. There were no Federal data on the cost of implementing existing death penalty provisions, since there have been no Federal executions since 1963 and as of September 1989, Federal prosecutors had not used the act's death penalty provisions. Few States had data on death penalty costs; and even when available, the data were incomplete. The literature has generally concluded that death sentence cases cost more than noncapital cases; however, this conclusion has not been adequately supported. As of September 1989, there were few efforts to establish procedures for monitoring the implementation of the act's death penalty provisions. 9 references.