Public defender's budget woes may affect death penalty cases

A Cook County public defender's request that a judge bar the death penalty in a Chicago double-murder case could affect more than 120 cases, including several in the suburbs, if the office does not have the funds to adequately defend the accused.

"We're out of money," said Julie Harmon, the assistant public defender and capital case coordinator. "Unless we get some relief, we're not going to be able to do the work necessary to defend these most-serious cases."

Illinois' Capital Litigation Trust Fund pays the expenses associated with death penalty cases. They include DNA testing, investigation, depositions from psychiatrists and other experts, court reporters, jailhouse informants and the mitigation specialists required for all capital cases, among other expenses.

The public defender's office received $1.75 million from the fund this year. About 60 percent of it went to pay off debt.

Some experts have threatened to stop work if they're not paid, said Harmon, though she added some may continue to work, anticipating that the public defender's office will receive a $400,000 supplemental grant it requested last month from Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias. A Giannoulias' spokeswoman said that the public defender's office has to appeal to state lawmakers directly for an increase in funds.

"I don't know if there's any hope of getting that (supplemental grant)," said Harmon.

If the treasurer denies the request, the earliest the public defender's coffers can be replenished is late September.

Harmon estimates that her office has more than 120 capital cases pending, including that of Mila Petrov and Carlos Beltran, accused of murdering their 5-year-old daughter in 2007.

The Cook County state's attorney has filed its notice of intent to seek the death penalty for the Des Plaines couple whose case is being heard in Skokie. In Rolling Meadows, the state has not yet indicated whether it will seek the death penalty for Patrick Taylor, accused of murdering a Rolling Meadows man in 2006, and Elk Grove Village resident Jonathan Wood, charged with first-degree murder in the death of his mother last year. However, the public defender's office must proceed as though the cases are capital.

High-profile cases can also be affected, including that of James Degorski, set to go on trial this month in the 1993 murders of seven at a Palatine Brown's Chicken & Pasta.

"Cases that have been in the pipeline for a while have the potential of being impacted negatively," said Harmon.

• Daily Herald news services contributed to this report.