kane

Yep. In high profile cases like this one it could cost millions of dollars to get through the trial, through all the appeals and actually put him to death.

There was a case in Georgia a handful of years ago where a guy had been convicted of a crime that was going to send him away for a long time. He was taken to the courthouse for sentencing, escaped, shot and killed the judge and some guards, carjacked someone and got away. He committed several crimes before kidnapping a woman and hiding at her house. She talked him into turning himself in.

All prosecutors and public defenders recused themselves because they knew the judge in question. The cities actual DA prosecuted the case and they brought in a defense lawyer who had worked in death penalties cases from New York. The indictment was over 900 pages. There were 1,000's of pieces of evidence, multiple crime scenes and many witnesses.

The defense attorney talked to the client and he agreed to plead guilty to any and all charges in exchange for life in prison without parole. When the defense attorney took that to the DA he was turned down. The DA told him if he didn't seek the death penalty he would never get reelected. So the case went on. The public defender's office kept running out of money to fund the defense team so it kept getting put on hold. Finally, 2 1/2 years later the trial is over and the guys is found guilty on many charges. During the sentencing phase he makes an insanity plea, is found not of right mind and given life with parole instead of death. Millions of dollars and nearly 3 years spent simply for one guy's political career.