Don Nickles: “We have a situation where Federal death penalty cases--most of them are handled in the States and most States have caps.…”

“We have a situation where Federal death penalty cases--most of them are handled in the States and most States have caps. My State has a cap of $20,000 for the lead attorney. We are not doing that. We are not capping what somebody can pay for their private attorneys. They can pay their private attorney anything they want to. Since we are talking about court-appointed attorneys, they are going to be paid for by the taxpayers, like we pay U.S. attorneys. I am saying that we should not pay that individual--their compensation, not their overhead or expenses; those are other items--three or four times as much as we pay the U.S. attorneys. I didn't even say we would limit the number of attorneys. I want people to have an adequate defense. In the McVeigh case, the defense counsel had 13 or 14 attorneys. The expenses are going to come out and be public, and people will be outraged. I am trying to have basic equity. I don't think they should make more than a U.S. attorney. I think that is a real outrage. Then when you find out they might have made three or four times as much money as a U.S. attorney--and again, I am not talking about expenses, I am talking about what they make--that is an injustice. We need equity and balance. That is why I have proposed this amendment. I hope my colleagues will vote for it.”