Posted on 05/08/2010 6:56:48 AM PDT by Libloather
Muhammad defense funding reaches supreme court
Last Update: 5/06 6:43 pm
Who should pay for part of accused soldier killer Abdulhakim Muhammad's defense? That question has made it all the way to the supreme court in Little Rock.
The answer should come in a few weeks and will have a huge impact on Muhammad's death penalty trial.
Abdulhakim Muhammad, 24, has made several high-profile court appearances. But he didn't make it inside the Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday morning as attorneys for the Arkansas Public Defender Commission argued Muhammad shouldn't get public money because he has a private attorney.
"If we have to pay for experts and expenses in a death case, we would also have to pay in a non-death case which would expand our budget, double it," Didi Sallings with the commission says.
Muhammad's attorney Claiborne Ferguson out of Memphis argued Muhammad's parents hired him, but his client has no money and is entitled to state funds related to his capital case.
"As long as they're found to be indigent, the constitution says they're still required to have a fair trial and if you don't have fair trials you can't have certainty of your verdicts either guilty or not guilty," Ferguson says.
All parties say they want Muhammad's trial for the murder of Army Pvt. William Long last summer done once, and done right. The argument is over who should pay.
"If they rule on state law grounds that we're required to [pay], than I might have to talk to the governor about special session or something because it could be very expensive very quickly," Sallings says.
(Excerpt) Read more at fox16.com ...
I’m surprised... I’d have thought this would have been been resolved long ago.
1. Abdulhakim Muhammad spent a night in the Lincoln Bedroom.
2. Pres_ _ent Obama will willingly release his birth certificate.
Doctors volunteer some of their time to hospitals. Attorneys should be required to do the same. Some court appointed attorneys make more money by working for the court. Money shouldn’t enter into it. Put the guy on trial, make it short and sweet and get it over with.
We should pay. Period.
We’re not (at least not yet) some Third World banana republic. Obama hasn’t got that far....yet.
We owe it to our founders to honor not only the words but the spirit of our beloved Constitution, which FReepers cherish.
Once this dirtbag has been freely given all the benefits of our judicial system, paid for by the suffering taxpayers, we did our part.
Then we can piss on his grave.
For his private lawyer? I don't think that's what the founders had in mind.
Yes, we should pay for his lawyer. That is our system. It requires competent representation.Not these loser public advocate attorneys, who are little more that law school grads, who need some cred.
And after he is convicted, we get to piss on his grave.
But, for better or for worse, this is who we are. Yeah, I know. Sometimes it sucks.
I wonder if the ABA would rather the state pay for pull-out-all-the-stops defense (guaranteed paychecks for themselves). Laws are made by lawyers these days, and seem to favor the lawyers. Whooda thunkit?
“If they rule on state law grounds ... , than [sic] I might have to talk to the governor ...”
This was written by a national news organization ?
if his parents hired the attorney, let them damned well pay him. OR go with a public defender like every other indigent defendant. Trying to have it both ways just doesn’t fly.
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