Though there is a moratorium on executions in Illinois, prosecutors in the state are still seeking capital convictions, and many jurisdictions are relying on the taxpayer-funded Illinois Capital Litigation Fund to offset the high costs of death penalty cases. “It costs a lot of money,” observed 6th Circuit Chief Judge John Shonkwiler when asked about the expenses associated with capital punishment trials. Dee Dee Rentmeister, an administrative assistant to the DeWitt County Board, agreed, noting that the county recently relied on the fund to cover approximately $1.43 million in capital trial expenses for two defendants who ultimately did not receive the death penalty. “If we had had to pick up the millions, oh my God. We would have had to borrow money someplace,” Rentmeister said.
According to DeWitt County, it cost a total of $1.75 million to prosecute and defend Maurice LaGrone and Amanda Hamm for the 2003 drowning deaths of Hamm’s three children. Of that, county citizens paid $321,000, and the Illinois Capital Litigation Fund covered the remaining expenses. “From the defense perspective, I don’t know too many people who actually could afford, on their own, someone to represent them. I think it would be almost an impossibility,” said DeWitt County Judge Stephen Peters, who presided over the cases of LaGrone and Hamm and is currently presiding over another capital case in the county. Rentmeister noted that the expenses covered by the County fell over two fiscal years, which “helped a little bit,” but that the high costs of the two death penalty cases required Board officials to dip into the jurisdiction’s contingency fund. “We thought we were going to have to hit the building fund (but didn’t),” she added.
The Illinois Capital Litigation Fund was established as part of major death penalty reforms enacted near the beginning of this decade. It was created to equalize the vast resources of the state and the mostly indigent defendants for whom the state was seeking the death penalty. The money has been available since January 2000, the same year that former-Governor George Ryan declared a moratorium on executions due to concerns about the accuracy and fairness of the death penalty. Though its original budget was $3.35 million, the fund now has $4.5 million available to the 101 Illinois counties besides Cook County, which has separate resources for capital trials. The increase occurred in 2004, two years after the fund ran out of money before the conclusion of the fiscal year. Of the $4.5 in taxpayer dollars, $3 million is earmarked for the expenses of appointed counsel, $1 million is reserved for state’s attorneys, and $500,000 is set aside for public defenders.
(The News-Gazette, August 13, 2007). See Costs.
