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Saturday, January 27, 2007

Ind. Courts - Costs of David Camm retrials lead to legislation

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener of the Louisville Courier-Journal writes today:

INDIANAPOLIS -- The state would pay for criminal retrials ordered by Indiana appellate courts under legislation filed by a New Albany lawmaker frustrated by a case that has cost Floyd County millions of dollars.

Rep. Bill Cochran said last year's retrial of David Camm, convicted a second time of killing his wife and their two children at his Georgetown home in 2000, cost the county more than $1 million.

The total cost of the case -- including both of Camm's trials and the trial of co-defendant Charles Boney -- is about $2.9 million, said Floyd County Auditor Teresa Plaiss.

Cochran said: "Some counties would be devastated, broke, even unable to open the doors facing that kind of cost. It's just time the state took over the responsibility whenever a case is remanded by the Appeals or Supreme Court."

House Bill 1692 would require the state to pick up criminal retrial costs -- regardless of what kind of charges are involved or why the case was sent back. That includes expenses incurred by the trial court, prosecuting attorney and public defender, including the costs for expert witnesses and the sequestering of juries. It would not reimburse for the salaries of any judicial officials. * * *

"It's to solve a problem that happens whenever there's a high-profile murder case," [Larry Landis, executive director of the Indiana Public Defender's Council] said. "When that burden falls on a small or medium-size county, there's all this unfunded liability that's not been included in the budget process. It's almost like counties need catastrophic crime insurance to pay for the cost of dispensing justice."

House Speaker Pat Bauer, D-South Bend, said lawmakers are interested in looking at proposals to incorporate more court costs into the state budget. He said Cochran's idea could be folded into broader court-related legislation.

Yesterday David Mann of the New Albany News & Tribune wrote:
[Rep. Bill] Cochran introduced House Bill 1692 on Friday; a piece of legislation that would require the state of Indiana to foot the bill when local courts are ordered to re-try criminal cases. The legislator evoked the name of David Camm in justifying the bill.

"A Floyd County jury found Camm guilty in March 2002, only to see the appeals court grant him a new trial," Cochran said. Camm, a former Indiana State Trooper was found guilty for a second time earlier this year of murdering his wife and children. "A second trial took place in 2006 and jurors reached the same conclusion as four years before: guilty," he said.

Cochran pointed out that the price tag for both of the trials ended up being close to $2.9 million. Most of that cost, he said, came as a result of the re-trial.

"Many people, myself included, have a hard time understanding why we have to pay that kind of money to reach the conclusion in two separate trials." Cochran called the burden on small counties such as Floyd "financially devastating" to hold a costly criminal trial. "Where is the justice for the local people who had to live through this nightmare a second time, then find out that they're paying for it through the nose?"

Here is an entry from April 3, 2006 on the costs of the three Camm trials; this entry from Dec. 20, 2006 is on the costs of the three Osco trials.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 27, 2007 10:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts