Most on here think that the guy running over the World is a hero but this guy is a Zero. What is the difference?????
Our disgusting legal system.
I think there may have been some serious over billing involved here.
The law hits a major speed bump when a defendant is obviously severely insane. In the 1960s, criminals used the insanity defense both to get an easier confinement, and to get released early when judged sane enough by doctors. So there was a crackdown.
Today it is extremely hard to get an insanity defense. Usually, insane prisoners go to prison, then when they act insane enough, are put in a psychiatric wing of the prison away from the general population, who would abuse or kill them.
But Loughner has been bounced back and forth getting evaluated and just about everyone agrees that he is quite crackers, so much so that he will be institutionalized for the rest of his life. Which today is somewhat worse than prison, as in many insane asylums, they just drug up their patients so that they are unconscious 23 hours of the day, awake just long enough to eat, defecate, get washed and be put back to bed.
Public defender and prosecutors are / is on salary ..... State should have paid no more than that salary. Jury duty still six dollars a day ? Ok they sequestered the jury at the double tree hotel maybe. Subject matter experts get paid ? Court infrastructure has hourly wages, clerks, balifs, recorders etc ...a few extra cops added for crowd control each day.
Guess 1.1 mil is all that charge code stacked up to display what was spent during his trial vs for his trial.
All those folks shy of the no tell motel motel sequestering costs is daily budget IMO.
Yet this is all “defense costs” ....?
Aka.....U.S. District Judge Larry Burns wrote that Loughner’s lawyers were paid on a monthly basis at an hourly rate of $178. He said “the lump sum that Ms. Clarke and Mr. Fleming received for their work” in the case was nearly $1.1 million.
Is this normal pay for a public defender ?
Insane system. Yes I deserve a lawyer when charged, appointed by the court if I can not afford one. But 1.1 million dollars worth ?????
Crazy as the victim, her husband and her attacker....
Just my opinion....stay safe !