Giannoulias: Get rid of abuses in Capital Litigation Fund
HB 869 passes out of committee today

February 26, 2009

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias’ bill aimed to curb alleged abuses in the Capital Litigation Trust Fund passed unanimously out of a House committee today.

House Bill 869 would cap the amount of money attorneys and investigators receive for food, travel and hotels when working on capital litigation cases and would give the Treasurer's Office the authority to return to the court any bills that may show potential abuses of the fund.

“The state must make sure that there is no abuse in the fund while at the same time ensuring that there is enough money to provide the proper resources for a capital trial,” added Giannoulias who drafted the legislation in response to allegations of improper and unreasonable billing requests.

The legislation is designed to hold personnel who litigate death penalty cases and bill the state’s Capital Litigation Trust Fund to the same reimbursement rates that are applied in federal capital litigation cases. Doing so would put an end to high-end dinners, first-class flights and other luxury charges that litigators and investigators charge the fund for reimbursement.

The Illinois State Bar Association helped draft this legislation and is fully supporting Giannoulias’ effort.

“We are committed to making these important changes to the Capital Litigation Trust Fund to ensure that there is no abuse of the fund which aims to restore confidence in the fairness of death penalty litigation in Illinois," State Bar Association member John Rekowski said.

“We are dealing with some of the toughest budget times in this state and there is no better time than the present to put this fund under a microscope to make sure that it isn’t’ being abused, and if it is—there must be consequences,” said Rep. Art Turner (D-Chicago), who is the sponsor of HB 869.

Sen. William Haine (D-Alton) is sponsoring the same legislation in the Senate.  Senate Bill 1289 has been assigned to the Criminal Law Committee.

Under Giannoulias’ plan, meals for attorneys and investigators would be capped at rates set by the United States General Services Administration.  This will provide consistency and will limit the amount of money that can be charged for a hotel room or a meal. These rates would apply unless an exception is requested and permitted.

The legislation also allows the Treasurer’s Office to return unreasonable, unnecessary or inappropriate expenses to the court for reconsideration.  For example, in the past judges have overlooked charges buried in receipts that indicate the attorney has billed the state for alcohol with a meal.

Giannoulias is also seeking to require that the lead trial counsel signs invoices for expenses that are submitted to the court for payment from the Capital Litigation Trust Fund, verifying that the amount requested as payment is reasonable, necessary and appropriate.

In addition to the legislation, Giannoulias is supporting a change to the Supreme Court’s rules that would allow the Treasurer and other stakeholders to petition the state’s highest court to remove any attorneys from the capital litigation trial bar who have abused the fund.

The Capital Litigation Trust Fund has cost the state more than $40 million since former Gov. George Ryan instituted a death penalty moratorium in 2003. The Treasurer’s Office administers the fund but has no authority to deny payments once approved by the courts.

Giannoulias’ actions come in the wake of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch investigation that highlighted abuse within the fund. Reporters found that investigators, defense professionals and prosecutors have taken advantage of the fund that has few limitations on how much can be billed and what is covered under reimbursement.

The Capital Litigation Trust Fund was created in 1999 by the Illinois General Assembly to provide defense counsel and prosecutors access to sufficient resources to cover the costs of litigating death penalty cases.

The bipartisan legislation, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2000, was prompted by the overturned convictions of 13 individuals whom the courts determined had been wrongly accused or convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death row.

As a result, the state sought to ensure that a lack of financial resources would not deny a death penalty defendant access to competent counsel and the ability to mount a credible defense. The fund also provides money for prosecutors, helping to defray the high costs of death penalty cases.

After a single case depleted the non-Cook County appointed defense counsel appropriation in fiscal year 2002, the Legislature amended the Capital Crimes Litigation Act to demand greater fiscal accountability from attorneys litigating death penalty cases. Court-appointed defense attorneys are now required to submit a budget and an itemized accounting of work performed in a death penalty case.

However, a Capital Punishment Reform Study Committee report published in May 2008 states that abuses still exist. Among its findings: The Capital Litigation Trust Fund acts as an incentive for prosecutors to pursue the death penalty – simply to shift the cost of the trial from county to state coffers.