Cert Petition Challenges ‘Breakdown’ of PD System, Says Defendant Tossed to Lions
A Georgia death-row inmate whose appointed capital defense lawyers were tossed off the case due to funding problems cites a “systemic breakdown of the public defender system” in a petition for certiorari.
The petition filed on behalf of Jamie Weis, accused of killing an elderly neighbor, asks the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether poor people have a right to continued representation by counsel once an attorney-client relationship has been established. The National Law Journal and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution both covered the case.
The public defenders appointed to take the place of the two capital defense specialists spent two years trying to withdraw from the case, the NLJ says. Their motions cited inexperience, heavy caseloads and lack of funding for experts and investigators.
The case is not the first to challenge underfunded indigent defense systems, the NLJ says. Several suits are pending in Georgia, and courts in Michigan and New York are allowing class action challenges.
The cert petition (PDF), filed on Weis’ behalf by Stephen Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights, says most states have found a right to continued representation, but in Georgia and Louisiana the right has been limited. “In Georgia and Louisiana, defense lawyers are fungible,” the petition says.
“This case involves the question of whether there is such a complete breakdown in providing counsel for the accused that a fair trial is impossible,” the petition says. “He faces not a ‘trial,’ as that term is understood as a contest between adversaries, but the fate of those thrown to the lions.”
The Georgia Supreme Court in a 4-3 ruling had refused to dismiss Weis’ case, saying Weis and his lawyers were largely responsible for trial delays because they did not cooperate with substitution of counsel, and the removal of counsel was justified.
