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"This study finds that the Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases (RPDO) increases access, improves quality, and reduces costs of death penalty representation in small to mid-sized counties."

"Fortunately, Reeves County is located in the seventh judicial region, and its commisioners court had signed on to be a member of the West Texas Regional Public Defender for Capital Cases, which billed itself as a type of 'murder insurance.'"

"'None of them or anybody on the court could ever remember having a capital murder case,' Farmer said.'That's a million dollars we don’t have. We would have had to borrow some money.'

"But through some supreme fortune, the county had just signed on to a new pilot program, a regional capital public defender's office started through a Task Force for Indigent Defense grant that plugs itself as a type of capital murder insurance for counties. That office is overseeing Thurby's defense, and the cost for attorney and defense investigation fees to Crane County will be dues paid to the office, somewhere around $4,000 a year."