Crime Fund To Be Sought For Rural Areas Smaller Counties Seek Help Prosecuting Major Cases

A proposed fund to help small counties battle high-profile criminal cases may come before the Legislature next session.

Plans for a criminal case fund were among those discussed Friday by the Legislative Council Interim Committee on the Criminal Justice Process.

Escalating costs for expert testimony, forensic work and appeals can prove burdensome, particularly for sparsely populated counties, said Ada County Commissioner Roger Simmons, representing the Idaho Association of Counties.

Many of those counties, already budgeting for prosecutors and defenders, could be bankrupted by lengthy or high-profile cases, such as for capital murder.

Even in populated counties such as Ada, trial-related costs may run as much as 200 percent over what the county sets aside. Judges and prosecutors routinely forgo demanding the death penalty, even in cases that might merit it, because of the high cost of appeals, said 2nd District Judge George Reinhardt of Grangeville.

“I’ve had judges tell me they oppose the death penalty because of the mess that occurs afterwards. It happens all the time,” he said.

Simmons proposed a catastrophic criminal fund as a solution. Counties would volunteer or be required to chip in to a statewide pool.

The state would provide matching seed funds, with an administrative board deciding which cases warrant assistance.

But some were concerned the board might dictate how and what cases are fought.

“The catastrophic fund is fine as long as the people administering it don’t dictate to counsel how to make their decisions,” said Alan Trimming, Ada County public defender.

Other topics included more state funding for experts and state labs; budgets for defense costs; creating a fund to pay for attorney general prosecutor teams in big cases; a district attorney system; and establishment of statewide public defenders, appellate defenders or defense teams.