Entries tagged with “indigent defense” from Harmfulerror

Today at 2:00 p.m., the Nevada Supreme Court, sitting en banc in Las Vegas, will conduct a hearing on ADKT 411, concerning performance standards and caseloads for counsel representing indigent defendants.  There are a relatively large number of reports from a variety of sources, but they do not appear to be available on the Court's website.  The Court informs me that the hearing will be webcast.  The link should appear on the Court's website shortly before 2:00 p.m.

The Nevada Supreme will return another $2.5 million to the State General Fund.

Justice Saitta has been chosen for a fellowship as one of 40 emerging state leaders.

The Indigent Defense Commission will meet today from 10 to 2 at the Nevada Supreme Court chambers in Las Vegas and Carson City.

On Friday, the Nevada Supreme Court denied OJ Simpson's motion for bail pending appeal.

Chris Owens will now be the Assistant District Attorney for the Criminal Division.  Former ADA Christopher Lalli will rejoin the Major Violators Unit.

Scotusblog previews a Nevada case that will be heard by the United States Supreme Court this fall: McDaniel v. Brown.

In a couple of weeks there will be another shuffling of cases among some of the criminal judges in the 8th Judicial District.  Judges Bell and Silver will now handle criminal and civil cases.  Judge Mosley will be assigned fewer criminal cases and will now handle all misdemeanor appeals and foreclosure mediation appeals.  Some criminal cases will also be transferred from Judge Hardcastle.  Notices should be sent approximately one week prior to any court dates.

Citing Cuts, Public Defenders Refuse New Cases -

California Prisons Must Cut Inmate Population (40,000 of 150,000)

Bush, Rove Far More Involved in Attorney Firings Than Previously Revealed

 

Via the Death Penalty Information Center, a 55 page report, Update on the Cost, Quality, and Availability of Defense Representation in Federal Death Penalty Cases, has been issued by the US Courts' Judicial Conference Committee on Defender Services.  The numbers are interesting:

From 1989 through 2007, 435 federal death penalty prosecutions have been authorized.

There have been 176 federal death penalty trials, involving 233 defendants.  61 defendants were sentenced to death (26% of those tried received death verdicts).

The study examines the cost of federal capital cases by examining cases with defendants who were eligible for the death penalty and comparing those authorized for the death penalty by the Attorney General against those which were not authorized. The cases examined took place between 1998 and 2004. The median cost for a non-authorized case was $76,665.  Cases in which prosecutors were authorized to seek the death penalty were substantially more expensive with a median cost of $353,185.  The median cost for authorized cases that went to trial was $465,602.

The death penalty cases also showed a far greater number of attorneys per case, with a median of 436 hours in non-authorized cases and 2,014 in death authorized cases.  Authorized death cases that went to trial had a median of 2,746 attorney hours while plea cases averaged 1,028 hours. 

Death authorized cases also carry a much higher cost for expert witnesses.  While non-authorized cases had a median cost of $5,275 for experts, death authorized cases had a median cost of $83,090 for all cases and $101,592 for those cases that went to trial.

The cost of the defense case had a huge impact upon the verdict received in the case.  Defendants who received the least amount of attorney and expert time, and whose defense representation thus cost the least, facted a higher probability of receiving a sentence of death.  1/3 of the defendants had trials that had a defense cost of $320,000 or less.  Those defendants received a death sentence in 44% of the cases.  In the remaining 2/3 of cases, which cost in excess of $320,000, the defendant received a death sentence only 19% of the cases.