Public Defender Workshop

Public Defenders for capital cases gave a presentation to the Commissioners Court during a workshop Tuesday afternoon. The 8-year old agency provides qualified defense attorneys for defendants in capital murder cases. The service does come at a cost to the county. Jack Stoffregen with the Public Defenders said the premium to Orange County would be $22,532 a year to insure the county would be covered by their services if there was a death penalty capital murder case in the county. An interested spectator to the presentation by the Public Defenders was Orange County District Attorney John Kimbrough whose office would prosecute the case in a capital murder. Kimbrough stated there are two kinds of capital murder cases; those that seek life in prison without parole and those seeking the death penalty. Kimbrough described the problem that there are no qualified defense attorneys in Orange County to serve in a death penalty case and only a few qualified ones left in Jefferson County. State law requires the defendant have two qualified attorneys for a death penalty case. Granted the last death penalty case in Orange County was 2004 according to Kimbrough, but one case could almost break the county if attorneys had to be brought in from Houston to handle the case. Stoffregen estimated the average death penalty case could cost one million dollars to defend the accused person with the county paying all the fees without the services provided by his office. Kimbrough believes the Commissioners Court and the District Judges need to make a decision on it. The Commissioners Court made no decision Tuesday because it was only a workshop session. Orange County decided not to participate in the program about three years ago when Public Defenders made a similar presentation.