Americans are paying a huge amount of money.

The Oregonian

[Smoke Bomb]

Well I have a law degree and I am really good at helping attorneys get "caught up". If you need any help, maybe I'd be good for a few hours here and there. I know a lot about all of this (been working with the system for a long time) and yeah I know, the hoops can be a real challenge at times. Where are you at?

[Smoke Bomb]

Oh man Ozone. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesh that one is a real challenge. Good luck.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

They don't have a clue that just to execute ONE person cost over a million dollars.

Not if you send the convict piggin' in Texas. We believe in a great tasting last meal, even a few cold beers or whatever. No muss, no fuss when it is all said and done. John Q. Public will not even spend one thin dime for the internment of the remains. Think of it as "totally organic, dude".

[Smoke Bomb]

Another thing is you have to go through all the bull*** to be able to be on the Capitol attorney defense board. That in itself is about a week long 15 hours a day job to convince the board that you are indeed capable of handling such a case. This is interesting. I do have a couple of other articles that I am going to post that are even more interesting. The public has no clue how hard the law is to work with. It is indeed one of the hardest things to work with.

[Smoke Bomb]

They do :-)

[TKDietz]

I think you are probably right about where most of that money went. Death penalty cases are different. There are a lot of procedural protections set up for defendants that are not available for defendants in other types of criminal cases. For instance, in every death penalty cases with an indigent defendant two death penalty certified attorneys must be appointed, and few attorneys are death penalty certified (I'm avoiding it myself). Most criminal defendants end up being deemed indigent and have counsel appointed for them, especially when it comes to felony cases. The percentage having attorneys appointed for them increases when it comes to death penalty cases, and in death penalty cases judges are a lot more willing to approve extraordinary expenses like expert witnesses, private investigators, airfare for witnesses and that sort of thing.

I'm a public defender so all of my clients are considered indigent. We almost never get to use expert witnesses or investigators, and we can forget about any of our judges signing off on anything like plane tickets or motel rooms for witnesses or anything like that. I spent several hours myself today on the other side of our county checking out a crime scene and talking to witnesses. That sort of thing takes up a lot of my time. Our budget is tiny. We run out of money for postage stamps every year. The prosecutors on the other hand are flush with cash. Their county budget dwarfs ours and they always seem to have several hundred thousand in asset forfeiture funds at their disposal, not to mention all of law enforcement to act as their investigators and their trained witnesses. You have to have a lot of money to match their war chest.

If you can't afford a lawyer, odds are precious little money will be spent defending you compared to what is spent building the case against you and prosecuting you, even if you are facing life in prison. Death penalty cases are a different animal though because of all the extra procedural protections, the mandatory appeal and the other bites at the apple people get in those cases, and so on. Trial judges will allow for a lot more money to be spent defending indigent defendants in those cases too because they don't want to get overturned on appeal. And I suppose they do worry a little more in those cases about people getting a fair trial, since lives are at stake. I think appellate judges worry a little more about that too when the punishment is death. In the end taxpayers spend an absolute fortune on every one of these cases and an incredible amount of time when you factor in all the people involved. I'm not opposed to the death penalty. In fact there are some instances when I really hope someone does have to pay the ultimate price for his crimes. But it's not cheap for us, that's for sure, and I doubt it does us any real good in the long run except perhaps in satisfying the need for revenge for some. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see us do away with the death penalty in this country some time in the next few decades.

[TKDietz]

"I think lawyers should be treated like physicians. In order to use the government court house they must "have someone on call". The on call lawyers MUST take any indigent person case who presents to the court house without funds to pay for their own care. Let us see how they would like that. The government will pay said on call lawyer a set fee for global legal fees. Oh like 1,000.00 about what I get payed for 9 months of maternity care with deliver"

That's pretty much the way it works in a lot of places. When I was in private practice I handled a lot of court appointed felony cases where I made considerably less than a grand, even if I might have twenty or thirty hours or more invested in the case. On lesser felonies in the lower end of the sentencing range they capped us at $250 in attorneys fees per case even in complex cases that involved a lot of work. You can't turn down these appointments either and it always takes forever to get paid. Things are different everywhere but for the most part these court appointed cases are not a good deal for lawyers.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

I wouldn't be surprised at all to see us do away with the death penalty in this country some time in the next few decades.

Except in Texas. If somebody kills a person in our great state, we will kill them back. Sad, yet true. Scads of lawyers will fight this. Such is the shame. I am not a huge proponent of the death penalty. My state legislature is. Therefore, it will be done. I have not heard a hue and cry about the federal case gainst McVeigh, by the way. That POS took the needle without a whimper. Where where you?

[TKDietz]

Where was I? I was never upset about Timothy McVeigh being executed. I'm not a real opponent of the death penalty. I'm pretty much ambivalent about it.

[Smoke Bomb]

Yeah I know about the two lawyer issue on Capitol cases. You know the sad thing here is the defendant in most cases is not the one that suffers. The people that want the defendant executed are the ones that do because they have so much anger built up inside that they can't wait for that plunger pusher. Bottom line is when and if they do get to the gurney the pain and all of that is over. They are no longer in any pain what-so-ever. I know some people on death row that "want" to be executed simply because they are sick of sitting on death row. They can't wait for that day to come. A lot of the public seems to think that the plunger pusher is the punishment. NOT! That is essentially the end of the misery. I do agree about the abolishment though. It is probably going to happen sooner than later. There are just too many cases in the US Supreme Court now that are leading that direction.

[Smoke Bomb]

Most people on death row aren't really that concerned about the actual execution. They are ususally at that time at peace with themselves and not afraid to die. It is the people on the other side that are more into the act of execution. I guess they get some sort of a thrill out of it or something I don't know. All I do know is that the majority of people that wind up on that gurny are usually ready to be there.

[Smoke Bomb]

I think he is talking about the entire nation here.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

All I do know is that the majority of people that wind up on that gurny are usually ready to be there.

This is great to hear. Some folks were saying that the execution process was painful and inhumane. If the convicted and sentenced look forward to the sentence as a relief from pain and suffering; what could possibly be the downside? Perhaps the "guilt of society" since every man, woman and child essentially condones the carrying out of the sentence. Else we would eliminate the DP. Wait a second.....That is what YOU advocate. You seek to deprive these poor heartless b*****ds of their final peaceful release from the bondage of pain and suffering. How could you?

[Smoke Bomb]

What? I only go by what I know to be fact from what I hear from people that know people on death row. Last I heard the whole world is against the DP as is millions in the states. I don't condone any murder whether it be outside or inside the walls of a prison.

[Smoke Bomb]

Sad to say a lot of them don't give a damn what society thinks or feels.

[Smoke Bomb]

Most people on death row aren't going through any pain or suffering either. Not while on the row and not at any time. Yeah there are a few. Statistically though most of them are pretty content with themselves and they really don't care what others have to say about it because they know where they are within themselves. I am only going by what I have researched and know from working with lawyers that defend these people. For the most part, they are actually having much less trauma in their lives than most of us out here. There life is pretty peaceful.

[Smoke Bomb]

I have been cooresponding with the US Supreme Court on a couple of cases. They are haulting executions all over this country. From what I am hearing on my side, the DP is very close to its way out. I think that the rulings that are coming down from the higher courts are pretty much speaking for themselves. It is ironic too because all they have to do is push that button. No votes, no nothing. Just 5 people on that bench are going to be making this decision.

[LexBaird]

I have been cooresponding with the US Supreme Court on a couple of cases. They are haulting executions all over this country.

They might be more inclined to correspond if you learned the difference between Capitol and capital, "haulting" and halting, "gurny" and gurney, and your and you're.

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Grammatical bump.

[LexBaird]

Hey, I'm all in favor of Capitol punishment. I say we start with Sacramento, and then move directly to D.C.