death penalty news January 2, 2005
CALIFORNIA: Bay Area murder trials' unusual costs exceed expectations Bay Area prosecutors spent more than half a million dollars securing the death penalty verdicts jurors handed down in three high-profile cases in December, according to estimates by court officials. Expenses exceeded routine costs by $16,000 in the triple murder trial of Stuart "Sausage King" Alexander in Alameda County and by $10,000 in the penalty phase of Glenn Taylor Helzer's quintuple murder trial in Contra Costa County. In San Mateo County, the trial of Scott Peterson cost $625,000 in all. This figure may include some routine expenses because court officials tracked all their costs in a bill to Stanislaus County. But Peterson's trial on charges he killed his wife and unborn son triggered many unusual costs. The county spent about $55,000 sequestering jurors in a hotel for 10 days during deliberations and four days during his trial's penalty phase. Extra sheriff's deputies who protected Peterson in the courtroom and the jurors during deliberations and in their hotel cost more than $300,000, San Mateo County court executive officer Peggy Thompson said. "I've never seen anything like this," Thompson said. Alexander's trial, which lasted a month longer than Peterson's, cost about $16,000 extra for a court reporter, but nothing extra for security. Helzer's five-week penalty trial cost about $10,000 more than other similar trials -- $4,000 for a second stenographer and $6,000 for an extra sheriff's deputy, said chief assistant executive officer Sherry Caraballo Dorfman. Helzer's trial did not have a guilt phase because he pleaded guilty last March. Courts often use extra court reporters in capital cases because they must make transcripts available by the end of the day, officials said. Court executives in the three counties and a spokeswoman at the state level all said they have not tracked the total cost of an average trial. A key difference among these three capital murder trials was, of course, that the entire nation watched Peterson's, while Alexander's and Helzer's were followed mostly by locals. But Thompson said San Mateo officials noted many expenses that in other murder trials would remain as unrecorded overhead. The county brought in some income by charging $8,500 a month to each media organization that set up an encampment outside the courthouse. Alameda and Contra Costa court officers said they did not record most courtroom expenses because the costs -- such as judge and clerk salaries and utilities -- were typical of other trials. (source: Contra Costa Times)
