County Commissioners in Pennington County, South Dakota have approved bud­get increas­es of a half-mil­lion dol­lars each for the coun­ty’s courts and its pub­lic defend­er office for 2018, large­ly as a result of two high-pro­file death-penal­ty pros­e­cu­tions. Taxpayers will shoul­der most of the finan­cial bur­den result­ing from the cap­i­tal pros­e­cu­tions of Rapid City defen­dants Jonathon Klinetobe and Richard Hirth, charged with mur­der, kid­nap­ping, and con­spir­a­cy in the dis­ap­pear­ance and death of Klinetobe’s ex-girl­friend, Jessica Rehfeld, in 2015. A third man involved in the alleged plot avoid­ed the death penal­ty by agree­ing to plead guilty and coop­er­ate with the pros­e­cu­tion. In prepa­ra­tion for their tri­als, the pub­lic defender’s office in Pennington County, the state’s sec­ond most pop­u­lous, request­ed a $567,000 increase over and above its cur­rent $2.4 mil­lion bud­get. The coun­ty cour­t­house, which pays court-appoint­ed attor­neys, request­ed an increase of $530,000 above its already $1.4 mil­lion bud­get. The coun­ty pros­e­cu­tor’s office will also receive a $135,000 increase to its $5.1 mil­lion bud­get. The County Commissioners approved the increas­es on September 26. Eric Whitcher, direc­tor of the Pennington County Public Defender’s Office, said death-penal­ty cas­es are ​“exceed­ing­ly expen­sive” and tax­pay­ers can ​“rea­son­ably expect” to pay between $500,000 to $1 mil­lion in tri­al-relat­ed costs. His June 13 let­ter to the coun­ty auditor’s office stressed that addi­tion­al fund­ing was essen­tial to cov­er ​“sub­stan­tial expen­di­tures” for expert eval­u­a­tions, trav­el expens­es, and wit­ness fees. The pub­lic defend­er’s office, which rep­re­sents Klinetobe, is pro­hib­it­ed from rep­re­sent­ing both defen­dants, requir­ing the appoint­ment of pri­vate coun­sel for Hirth. The court has appoint­ed two pri­vate lawyers in his case, and Klinetobe is rep­re­sent­ed by one pri­vate lawyer, in addi­tion to two lawyers from the pub­lic defender’s office. About $200,000 of the new fund­ing grant­ed to the pub­lic defender’s office has been ear­marked for Klinetobe’s defense alone. Holli Hennies, coun­ty com­mis­sion office man­ag­er, said in June that bud­get increas­es would large­ly be fund­ed from prop­er­ty tax collections. 

South Dakota, which cur­rent­ly has three pris­on­ers on its death row, last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 2012. The last per­son to receive the death penal­ty in Pennington County was Briley Piper, who was sen­tenced to death in 2011.

(T. Tan, ​“Big boost in fund­ing for death penal­ty cas­es,” Rapid City Journal, October 15, 2017; T. Tan, ​“Death penal­ty cas­es in Rehfeld mur­der could prove cost­ly,” Rapid City Journal, June 23, 2017.) See Costs and Representation.

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