I did my best to transcribe what Baez was saying after the motion decision was made.
JB: The last status hearing in which I was unable to attend, the court, I did have the opportunity to later view it, thanks to our friends with the cameras, and I noticed the court made inquiries and nothing was mentioned as to any new discovery that was coming out. Since then, while I was unavailable, and as well as my co-counsel, not only was over 5000 pages of discovery released, they were released to the media before I or any member of my team had the opportunity to do so. Included in these 5000 pages are letters to my client from member, from people all across the country, people who I have no idea how they relate to a capital case of murder. I dont understand the states intention of releasing this, what I consider very private correspondence that is not of any type of security risk to not only the public but making it a part of this case and so I, of course, I even asked co-counsel, and he doesnt have enough experience to come up with a conclusion, either.
HHJP: When you say co-counsel, since theres numerous co-counsel, which
JB: Mr. Mason
HHJP: Okay.
JB: Who charmingly responded, I dont have enough experience to be able to figure that one out. Many of these, many of these letters were written back as far as a year or two ago, and unfortunately, this is in violation of Judge Stricklands order that anything the state had in its possession must be turned over within ten days to the defense, including this issue is one sworn statement of a Debbie Polosano (sp) who we took her deposition a week earlier. It would have been nice to have her sworn statement to the lead detective in this case prior to that. In addition to that, numerous other items, numerous other items that have absolutely no relevance to this case, Judge, and I bring this to the courts attentions for two reasons, Im sure you want to know, first off, the situation where we are set with deadlines, theres a court order that requires them to turn over things within ten days of doing so, and we still get things that were issued two years ago. This has been going on, and been an ongoing process for a very long time. Weve complained about it, obviously
HHJP: Have you filed a motion for sanctions?
JB: Only on one occasion, Judge, and, no I have not-
HHJP: Okay.
JB: Ill leave it at that before I make any other comments. Thats one issue, Judge, now, the other issue is these relevance arguments that, that we plan on raising, well, let me say on my first issue: Weve got 5000 pages now which must be reviewed thoroughly, and if were going to follow our obligations, specifically under the ABA guidelines for capital cases, these people either need to be spoken to, we need to figure out what relevance they have to this case, how the state plans on using it against our client in any way, shape, or form, and, undoubtedly, the current deadlines that are set just simply arent going to work if this is the manner in which we must proceed. Now, if the state is going to contend that, Well, were just turning things over, we dont really plan on using it. Then weve got another issue of, of attempting to embarrass our client by submitting things to the public, private matters to the public that arent a security issue. I understand that when the jail receives things, they review the mail, they check it for contraband, they see if theres any escape plans or anything like that and that should be the end of it. I know the court has relied on the separation of powers between the, between the court and the jail, however, separation of powers doesnt seem to play a factor or role in this case when every time we turn around, the jail is colluding with law enforcement to make their case for them. Therere those that can argue whether they have a case to begin with, but the, you have the issue of the jail sending one, one high-profile inmate to go talk to another, to, to bring out discovery, you have, you have these, these issues where the jail is taking, by request of law enforcement, my client to be told that her daughter is deceased, by allo
, by making her watch the news and videotaping it, and then you have situations where now her mail is, is being disclosed
HHJP: Mr. Baez
.
At which point Baez goes on, 'Give me another moment, Judge, blah, blah, blah...', HHJP responds with his "Bear in mind...." speech.
I took mercy and left out all the 'ah's', 'uh's', and dramatic pauses.
