Just the Fax
Justice For The Fisher's
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
- Messages
- 4,924
- Reaction score
- 105
Looks like the Cooper trial strained the court budget big time. Too bad JLY was tried few weeks after this fiasco. Probably a reason it was a=so short and substantiated.....there was little money left in the budget. Howard Kurtz took us taxpayers for a ride with the wasted hours he billed.....sigh.
==================================================
Indigent Defense Services, formed by the state to oversee and ensure legal representation for those who cannot otherwise afford it, paid $340,507 in expenses and fees to Howard Kurtz and Robert Trenkle, the two lawyers appointed to the case. Of that total, $233,116 went to Kurtz, who was paid for 2,429 of the 2,921 hours he billed for during his three years on the case.
Why so expensive?
Thomas Maher, head of Indigent Defense Services, said the money spent on the Cooper defense was among the most he remembered, particularly for a case where prosecutors were not pursuing the death penalty. A recent study of capital cases showed that only 1 percent of the cases cost more than $200,000 for Indigent Defense.
-snip-
Maher said it can be difficult to calculate the true cost of a case because prosecutors and police, who draw state salaries, rarely keep track of the hours they spend on a specific case.
Lorrin Freeman, the Wake County clerk of courts, said the cost for the Cooper jury was $25,940, the highest she could recall in recent history. Toward the end of the trial, jurors sent the judge a note expressing their frustration with how protracted it had been. In the note, jurors asked the judge to urge lawyers to make better use of their time.
By comparison, the jury for the trial of Jason Young, another Wake County man accused of killing his wife, cost the courts $8,530.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/19/ ... z1VTS833kH
==================================================
Indigent Defense Services, formed by the state to oversee and ensure legal representation for those who cannot otherwise afford it, paid $340,507 in expenses and fees to Howard Kurtz and Robert Trenkle, the two lawyers appointed to the case. Of that total, $233,116 went to Kurtz, who was paid for 2,429 of the 2,921 hours he billed for during his three years on the case.
Why so expensive?
Thomas Maher, head of Indigent Defense Services, said the money spent on the Cooper defense was among the most he remembered, particularly for a case where prosecutors were not pursuing the death penalty. A recent study of capital cases showed that only 1 percent of the cases cost more than $200,000 for Indigent Defense.
-snip-
Maher said it can be difficult to calculate the true cost of a case because prosecutors and police, who draw state salaries, rarely keep track of the hours they spend on a specific case.
Lorrin Freeman, the Wake County clerk of courts, said the cost for the Cooper jury was $25,940, the highest she could recall in recent history. Toward the end of the trial, jurors sent the judge a note expressing their frustration with how protracted it had been. In the note, jurors asked the judge to urge lawyers to make better use of their time.
By comparison, the jury for the trial of Jason Young, another Wake County man accused of killing his wife, cost the courts $8,530.
Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/08/19/ ... z1VTS833kH
Now that's a good idea....:doh: ..... I'll go over there to see the comments. 
