Costs of Ramsey retrial add up

By Rodney Hart

Herald-Whig Staff Writer

Sunday, April 15, 2007

LEWISTOWN, Ill. — The cost of justice?

In the case of the Daniel Ramsey murder trial, it could be $2 million or more.

Ramsey is on trial for the 1996 murders of two Hancock County girls. A 1997 conviction and death penalty sentence were overturned in 2000, leading to a new and exhaustive effort by Hancock County and state prosecutors to retry the case.

Attorneys finished the second week of jury selection Friday, and testimony could come this week.

Attorney Jane Bohman, who heads the Chicago-based Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, says nearly $600,000 was spent on Ramsey's retrial expenses from 2000 to October 2006. Most of that money was for defense attorney fees, she said.

The fees for Ramsey's two court-appointed attorneys are paid by the Capital Litigation Fund, set up in 2000 by the Illinois General Assembly to fund death penalty cases.

"Cases of this magnitude have cost between $1 million and $2 million," Bohman said. "I wouldn't be surprised if this (Ramsey) is one of the costliest trials we've seen to date, based on what we know and the issues involved."

Attorneys from both sides are reimbursed for "reasonable" expenses incurred. The judge presiding over the case, Steven Bordner of Fulton County, must approve expenses.

Don Hays, senior counsel with the State Appellate Prosecutor's office, said several Illinois counties faced bankruptcy before the fund was set up because counties had to pay for death penalty trials.

"A trial judge approving expenditures in a capital litigation case may have to make very difficult decisions," Hays said. "If he says no (to a bill), then he runs the risk of an appeal that the defense was improperly restricted."

Capital trials are expensive because they are often moved outside of the original county and expert witnesses must be paid thousands of dollars to testify.

The Capital Litigation Trust Fund was allocated $10 million this year by the Illinois Legislature — $5.5 million for Cook County cases and $4.5 million for all others in the state. Ramsey is one of 170 Illinois residents facing capital murder charges, with 150 of those in Cook County. Cases often take years before they go to trial.

"The entire purpose of the fund is to allow the county to do its duty and handle these types of cases," Hays said.

Dave Walker, chairman of the Hancock County Board, said he is unsure how much the trial will cost the county if the Capital Litigation Fund doesn't cover "reasonable" costs.

"I'm sure there will be some costs, but we don't have a handle on it," Walker said. "Hopefully it will be minimal."

County Board members were told at last month's meeting they may have to amend the annual budget, because the trial costs were not considered when the budget was adopted.

"We knew it was coming up, but those things get delayed all the time," Walker said.

Potential costs for the county include expert witnesses, transportation of Ramsey to Fulton County during the trial, and travel and other expenses incurred by prosecutors.

However, Hays said the county should get most of its costs reimbursed from the Capital Litigation Trust Fund.

"I would say that from my experience, as long as the bills are reasonable, they (the county) should be able to tap into the fund," he said.

Bohman said records show during the 2004 Livingston County death penalty sentencing for Andrew Urdiales, prosecutors paid Park Diepz & Associates nearly $150,000 for expert psychological testimony. Urdiales already was serving two other life sentences for murder, and he's one of 11 people put on Illinois' death row since Gov. George Ryan commuted all Illinois death sentences in 2003.

Ironically, Ramsey's conviction and sentence were overturned before Ryan commuted all death sentences, but he now faces the death penalty again. Fourteen murder convictions and sentences have been overturned since Ryan's 2003 death penalty moratorium.

Only one other Illinois resident, Cecil Sutherland, had a murder conviction overturned and was later convicted again after Ryan's actions. Sutherland was found guilty in 2004 of a 1987 murder in Kell, and he did not go through the sentencing phase because he wanted the death penalty.

His trial cost more than $2 million, Bohman said.

Pretrial motion hearings and jury questioning indicate Ramsey's attorneys intend to use the insanity defense, and several experts from out of state are on the defense's potential witness list.

"The question is, do we want to put tremendous emotion and energy into this process, or do we want to look for a way to punish the person severely, keep us safe and take those resources and do something else with them?" Bohman said.

"With reforms in place, these trials are big productions .... I don't try to tell people in communities how to answer that, but that's discussion they have to have."

Ramsey's 1997 trial, held in Galesburg, was paid for by Hancock County. Karen Andrews, Hancock County's state's attorney at the time, said it cost about $100,000 in county funds to try the three-week case.

Andrews said she and the Illinois Attorney General's office sought the death penalty in 1997 in part because one of the victim's families thought it was appropriate. She said she offered Ramsey a plea bargain deal of life in prison without parole after his conviction was overturned, but he declined the offer.

"With the moratorium on the death penalty, he decided to just go ahead to trial," Andrews said. "I don't think the death penalty solves anything. Life in prison can be brutal, and I don't think the death penalty makes financial sense or does the community any good."