Death on the line

Statistics from the state parole board show aggravated murder defendants who get life with parole serve, on average, a prison sentence six years longer than those who get the same sentence for first-degree felony murder — 28.4 years compared to 21.7 years.

Yet, the price tag for capital cases is thousands and thousands of dollars higher.

Death on the line

With any aggravated murder case, the American Bar Association mandates that defense attorneys must immediately begin a mitigation investigation, Means said.

"We have a whole litany of things that have to be met, for us not to be (seen as) incompetent," Means said. "While a prosecutor may be able to wait to declare his options, we can't. We have to get going."

A mitigation investigation is an in-depth look into every aspect of the defendant's life to avert death-row status.

If that investigation is not started immediately, it could mean a later appeal on grounds of ineffective counsel, Jarvis said.

The $75,000 received from the County Commission is immediately used to hire a mitigation expert and extra investigators, as well as pay for the travel of expert witnesses and travel of the mitigation specialist to conduct interviews.

"It's a huge amount of work," Jarvis said. "It takes a ton of money, a ton of time."

The first few weeks are the most intense because that's the time James Whitman uses to find information that might dissuade prosecutors from requesting the death penalty.

"We have to be on board the second it happens," said Whitman, a mitigation specialist out of Washington, who, along with his father, has worked with the Utah County Public Defenders Association for several years. "We have to be there the next day to make sure we don't miss anything."

Whitman interviews parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, schoolteachers, neighbors. He requests medical records from birth to present for the client, as well as medical records of parents and grandparents.

He's looking for anything. Fetal alcohol syndrome or a family history of depression. Traumatic childhood experiences. Problems at home.

"Basically mitigation ... is anything and everything proffered to get a sentence other than death," Whitman said.

Each case may require as many as 600 hours and cost a few tens of thousands of dollars just in the first few weeks, Whitman said.

"Without the death sentence, all you need is a guilt investigator and an attorney," Whitman said. "Just like the old Perry Mason."

But because death is on the line, the case also needs two death-case-qualified attorneys, psychologists, psychiatrists and another case investigator separate from the mitigation specialist.

Whitman estimated that hiring the experts, getting the records and conducting the interviews almost always depletes the $75,000.