The cost to taxpayers to defend a former Schofield Barracks soldier accused of torturing his daughter to death has risen to more than $5 million, according to data released by the U.S. District Court in Hawaii.
That does not include costs incurred by federal prosecutors who took him to trial.
The figure is current as of Feb. 6, when a federal judge sentenced Naeem Williams to life in prison.
The tally for attorneys’ fees and other costs for his defense team has risen $500,000 since June 26. That’s when 12 Hawaii jurors found that Williams did not deserve to be put to death for murdering his daughter, Talia, 5.
Nearly all of the additional amount paid for attorneys’ fees and costs, expert witnesses, paralegals, investigators, overhead and other miscellaneous expenses, according to the court.
|
DEATH PENALTY TAB
Expenses for the Naeem Williams trial reached more than $5 million, not including any fees or expenses from federal prosecutors who had sought the death penalty. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
>> Defense attorneys’ fees: $3,019,036
>> Other expenses: $1,850,260
>> Jury selection and expenses: $222,887
>> Total expenses: $5,092,183
|
The jury found Williams, 35, guilty of capital murder for killing his daughter in their Wheeler Army Airfield family quarters in July 2005 through child abuse and as part of a practice and pattern of assault and torture. The jury also found him guilty of conspiring with his wife, Delilah, to murder the girl, of lying to investigators and telling his wife to lie.
The jurors found him eligible for the death penalty but not deserving of it.
Taxpayers paid for Williams’ defense because he could not afford to pay for it himself.
The government has not provided the cost of prosecuting Williams because the U.S. Attorney’s Office says it does not track the cost of each case.
At the time of the June 26 tally, the court had not yet received and approved all of the requests for expenses incurred up to that date, and there were additional expenses after the jury rendered its verdict.
The court did not provide a breakdown of how much of the additional $500,000 was for expenses incurred before and after June 26.
In August the court appointed a third death penalty-qualified lawyer to the defense team to explore possible appeal issues and to advise Williams on whether to challenge his conviction. The court selected veteran Hawaii defense lawyer Brook Hart.
The two San Francisco-based death penalty lawyers who defended Williams in the guilt and sentencing phases of the trial told U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright that it would be improper for them to advise Williams on whether to appeal because they didn’t want their own feelings about a possible retrial to influence Williams’ decision.
The defense team said the list of prospective jurors from which the final 12 were selected did not represent a fair cross section of Hawaii’s population.
In October, Williams’ lawyers told Seabright that their client had not yet made up his mind about whether to appeal his conviction but that they wanted to avoid anything that might re-expose Williams to the death penalty.
Seabright told them Williams had had enough time to consider a possible appeal. Williams replied that he was not going to ask for a new trial based on the composition of the jury. At his Feb. 6 sentencing, Williams signed a waiver of his appeal rights. He has until Friday to change his mind.
