Fumo trial costing nearly $9000 per day

A federal jury continues their sixth day of deliberations on Monday in the corruption trial of former state Senator Vincent Fumo. Jurors are looking at 1,300 exhibits introduced by federal prosecutors, who also called 82 witnesses during the four and a half month long trial.

UPDATE (3/16/09): Lawyers for the defense have filed a motion to suspend jury deliberations because one juror posted updates about the deliberations on Facebook. Check back for additional details throughout the day. The Philadelphia Daily News has more.

A federal jury continues their sixth day of deliberations on Monday in the corruption trial of former state Senator Vincent Fumo.  Jurors are looking at 1,300 exhibits introduced by federal prosecutors, who also called 82 witnesses during the four and a half month long trial.

Transcript:
$8,889 dollars a day. That’s the price for the high profile trial in federal court costs alone. With 69 days of testimony, that works out to more than $600,000 dollars. That includes court salaries, the judge, security and jury costs.

The U.S. attorney’s office wouldn’t give an estimate of their costs.

Former federal prosecutor Barry Gross works as a white collar defense attorney. Gross says the cost should never figure into the decision.

Gross: “It really comes down to the seriousness of the case and the amount of evidence that they have. Very rarely is there a decision made cost-benefit as to the amount of money needed to bring a case.”

Fumo is accused of using his Senate staff as personal servants and bilking both a museum and a non-profit of millions of dollars.

Listen:
Click on the play button below or right click on this link and choose “Save Link As” to download. [audio: reports20090313fumo.mp3]