Little trivia for you Floridians about your neighboring state Georgia.
Yes, that was a very convoluted way of saying that the GA Supreme Court heard oral argument in the case of Jamie Ryan Weis, who’s sat in pre-trial confinement for 4 years awaiting a death penalty trial. For the first two years of his confinement, he didn’t even have counsel. The reason? GA has no money. Not for him and not for the 70 or so other capital defendants.
Not only “Georgia court rules”, but ABA standards as well require two lawyers on each capital case. Anything but is sure to result in a reversal. So why doesn’t Georgia have any money to pay for an adequate defense? I’m glad you asked:
The lawyers, Bob Citronberg and Tom West, asked for funds from the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council at a time when the case against courthouse killer Brian Nichols was almost single handedly bankrupting the state defender system. The state wound up paying $2.3 million of Nichols’ total $3.2 million defense tab.
That’s why. One of the most publicized death penalty cases in recent history, which ended without a death sentence.
http://apublicdefender.com/2009/11/15/title-bout-in-ga-death-penalty-vs-no-money/
Which all leads me to wonder if this latest request is not a last ditch effort on the part of Andrea Lyon to try to get the DP off the table.
We have all debated on the possibility of a plea agreement, but quite a few have pointed out that the state would have to offer one first.
So, Ladies and Gentlemen, is this AL's strategic move to SA to force them to offer up a plea of LWOP to avoid bankrupting the State of Florida public defender program? If THAT were to happen, AL could claim a victory in getting DP removed. (Psst...I don't think the mitigating thing is working out for them....)
Is SA willing to gamble over $2 million of
taxpayer money without a guarantee of a guilty verdict......or will they play it safe and offer a plea deal?
Next move.....the State of Florida
What if I told you that the State Attorney (i.e. Lawson Lamar) will not even factor in whether the State is paying for Casey's defense.
What if I told you the cost of her defense will not come anywhere near $2 million (more like $100K).
Okay, nevermind, I am telling you that. Lawson Lamar has been the elected State Attorney for Orange and Osceola since 1980 something and he is unlikely to run again because he is reaching age limts in Florida. So he could care less what the State is ordered to pay for her defense.
Most importantly though, the State Attorney is not even a party to Casey's motion to be declared indigent (which she will be); rather the attorneys for the Justice Administration Commission will be the attorneys of record when the request for indigency will be argued. And while they will likely object, Judge Strickland will declare Casey indigent.
However, once she is declared infigent, JAC will only pay the costs if Casey's defense abides by JAC guidelines - which are less than extravegant. As a result he cannot use his priced experts that live out of state unles they are either (1) wiling to accept the JAC rate of pay (about $150 an hour) or (2) if there is no such exert in Florida that could handle an issue Baez needs an expert on - unlikely.
Regardless, in any instance where Baez tries to deviate from the JAC guidelines for pay, he will have to seek court permission to exceed JAC guidelines and the JAC attorneys will appear and object. The net result being much more transperancy regarding who is being paid and for what.
In any event, the most interesting thing will be to see whether Baez lists what he was paid for all of Casey's case. Reason being is the JAC rules require you to list all fees being paid for all of client's current cases. It does not require you to list what you were paid for past cases.
Thus I have a sneaking suspicion that Baez will noy divulge what Casey "paid" him for the Check Fraud case, because he technically no longer represents her on the case (under Florida rules of administration, an attorney ceases being attorney of record 30 days after criiminal case is disposed of).
Bottom line though for you all will be nothing but frustration. Because while this motion will raise a million questions about what Casey was paid or how shady Baez is, the bottom line is that Casey Anthony will be declared indigent - no matter how nasty that tastes.
p.s. Baez himself will receive no money from the state. Rather he has to submit invoices to JAC and they pay the vendors directly.
