The Cost Of Justice In The Hadiya Pendleton Trials
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Her murder case captured the attention of the city and the nation.
Hadiya Pendleton, an innocent teenager, was shot and killed. This week, jurors convicted two men of her murder.
But what was the price of justice in this case?
CBS 2's Dorothy Tucker has been digging into the numbers and has the story.
One of the reasons the case was so expensive is because it took five and a half years to get to a jury. Add up years of investigating, nearly 150 court hearings and an eight day trial.
Both Micheail Ward and his co-defendant Kenneth Williams were tried at the same time. They had two separate juries with alternates, which means at least 28 men and women were paid $17.20 a day for nearly $4,100.
Up until the day both men were convicted, if you add up the cost of housing them in the Cook County Jail from the day they were arrested, February 12, 2013 until Thursday at $160 a day for 2,017 days, times two, that's $645.440.
The day Pendleton was shot, where surveillance video shows teens running from the park, 20 Chicago police officers responded to the scene. Another 31 detectives were assigned to the case. All together logging some 10,000 hours.
Police officers were among the 27 witnesses prosecutors called. Five witnesses were from out of town, among them one of Hadiya's friends, now attending college in Dallas.
Flights, lodging and meals for all five, according to the state's attorney's office, $10,000.
The public defender's office declined to share its costs, but during the trial we know at least one of the six witnesses was paid.
Geoffrey Loftus is a psychologist from Seattle.
"Typically for a two day trip, which is what it takes to Chicago, I charge for eight hours on each of two calendar days, 16 hours, $250 an hour, $4,000 in fees.
And for a transcript of the trial, which attorneys are expected to buy, it's 3,000 pages and could cost $5,100.
The total cost? Hard to calculate because not everything has been revealed, like overtime for police, forensic tests, defense witnesses.
But when you add up what we do know, it's $668,633.
