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Parkland Shooter's Public Defenders Seek To Withdraw Because Cruz Will Inherit Money
Source: NPR
Parkland Shooter's Public Defenders Seek To Withdraw Because Cruz Will Inherit Money
April 25, 2019 2:39 AM ET
MATTHEW S. SCHWARTZ
With the pending payout of a parent's life insurance policy, the confessed Parkland, Fla., school shooter could get more than $430,000. So he is no longer entitled to be represented for free by a public defender, his lawyers said in a court filing Wednesday asking to withdraw from the case.
"It has come to the attention of undersigned counsel that Nikolas Cruz is a beneficiary in a MetLife life insurance policy and is entitled to half of a death benefit valued at $864,929.17 as of April 23, 2019," the Broward County Public Defender's Office wrote.
"The Law Office of the Public Defender is statutorily prohibited from representing a non-indigent defendant," the attorneys said, asking to withdraw from the case.
Last April, Judge Elizabeth Scherer declared Cruz "indigent" for purposes of the case, because even though he had a net worth of $28,000, that wouldn't be enough to cover his defense costs. The state compensates court-appointed defense attorneys up to $25,000 for cases where the potential sentence is death. "The cost of private representation would certainly far exceed $25,000, as Defendant is charged with seventeen separate counts of First Degree Murder, and is facing the death penalty on each of the seventeen counts," Scherer wrote.
-snip-
April 25, 2019 2:39 AM ET
MATTHEW S. SCHWARTZ
With the pending payout of a parent's life insurance policy, the confessed Parkland, Fla., school shooter could get more than $430,000. So he is no longer entitled to be represented for free by a public defender, his lawyers said in a court filing Wednesday asking to withdraw from the case.
"It has come to the attention of undersigned counsel that Nikolas Cruz is a beneficiary in a MetLife life insurance policy and is entitled to half of a death benefit valued at $864,929.17 as of April 23, 2019," the Broward County Public Defender's Office wrote.
"The Law Office of the Public Defender is statutorily prohibited from representing a non-indigent defendant," the attorneys said, asking to withdraw from the case.
Last April, Judge Elizabeth Scherer declared Cruz "indigent" for purposes of the case, because even though he had a net worth of $28,000, that wouldn't be enough to cover his defense costs. The state compensates court-appointed defense attorneys up to $25,000 for cases where the potential sentence is death. "The cost of private representation would certainly far exceed $25,000, as Defendant is charged with seventeen separate counts of First Degree Murder, and is facing the death penalty on each of the seventeen counts," Scherer wrote.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/716985504/parkland-school-shooter-public-defenders-seek-to-withdraw-because-cruz-has-money