2018 Tennessee Code
Title 40 - Criminal Procedure
Chapter 25 - Fees of Officers
§ 40-25-129. Cases in which state or county liable.
(a) Neither the state nor any county of the state shall pay or be liable in any criminal prosecution for any costs or fees hereafter accruing, except in the following classes of cases:
(1) All felony cases, where prosecution has proceeded to a verdict in the circuit or criminal court;
(2) All cases where the defendant has been convicted in a court of record and the court has made a finding at any evidentiary hearing that the defendant is indigent and remains indigent at the time of conviction or where the execution issued upon the judgment against the defendant has been returned nulla bona. Neither the state of Tennessee nor any county of the state shall be liable for or pay any costs in any criminal case, where security has been accepted by the officer taking the security, and an execution, afterwards returned nulla bona, as to the defendant and the defendant's securities. Compensation for boarding prisoners (§§ 8-26-105, 40-25-118 -- 40-25-121, and 41-4-131 -- 41-4-137), expenses of keeping and boarding juries (§§ 40-25-115 -- 40-25-121), compensation of jurors (§§ 22-4-101 -- 22-4-107 and 40-18-107), costs of transcripts in cases taken to the supreme court by appeal or writ of error as provided by law, mileage and legal fees for removing or conveying criminals and prisoners from one (1) county to another, or from one (1) jail to another (§ 8-21-901(a)(3)(D)), and compensation and mileage of witnesses for the state duly subpoenaed and required to attend before any court, grand jury or magistrate in a county other than that of their residence and more than five (5) miles from their residence (§§ 24-4-102 and 40-17-112), and where any witness for the state shall be confined in jail to await the trial in which the witness is to testify, shall be paid in all cases as heretofore; and
(3)
(A) When a criminal prosecution is instituted against a state prison inmate because of conduct within a department of correction penal institution or because of conduct relative to an escape attempt from a penal institution, the expense of the prosecution imposed on the county wherein the institution is located shall be reimbursed to the county by the state. When a criminal prosecution is instituted against a juvenile committed to the department of children's services and placed in a youth center because of conduct within the youth center or because of conduct relative to an escape attempt from the youth center, the expense of the prosecution imposed on the county wherein the youth center is located shall be reimbursed to the county by the state;
(B) For the purpose of this section only, "expense imposed on the county" means the expense of keeping and boarding jurors pursuant to §§ 40-25-115 -- 40-25-121 and the compensation and mileage allowance of jurors pursuant to title 22, chapter 4, and § 40-18-107.
(b) Any bill of costs or other fees owed a county by the department of correction as the result of a criminal conviction in that county shall be paid by the department within one hundred twenty (120) days of the date the bill is submitted.
