The Amarillo Globe-News reports, "Randall joins death penalty team."
Randall County is joining up with a task force that provides legal defense to indigents charged with capital murders in which the death penalty is being sought.
Commissioners voted Tuesday in favor of an inter-local agreement with the West Texas Regional Public Defender of Capital Cases . A legislative mandate set up the program with the idea of reducing costs for participating counties and reducing the number of retrials.
The office will serve 85 counties in the 7th and 9th Administrative Judicial Region. The central office will be located in Lubbock County .
Each office around the state will consist of a chief public defender, four attorneys, two investigators, two mitigation specialists and two legal assistants. A local attorney also will be asked to be on board early on in each case.
Jack Stoffregen, chief public defender for the office , said the office will handle 22 or 23 capital cases at one time.
"It allows a defense team to get on the case earlier than we could do in the past. We can start working it early when the evidence is still there. Under the system now, the evidence is cold by the time they're appointed.
"All we're working on is the capital cases. It's great. We can concentrate and spend a lot more time on them, and it's the time that we need to be spending on them anyway," he said.
If a prosecutor is not going to seek the death penalty, the office will withdraw representation and a local attorney will take over the case.
Earlier coverage of the office is here.
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