June 13 OKLAHOMA: Nichols' Lawyer: U.S. Torn by Executions An Oklahoma jury's inability to decide whether to send bombing conspirator Terry Nichols to death row may reflect wider misgivings about the death penalty, his defense attorneys say. Oklahoma led the nation in executions 3 years ago and has one of the highest death row populations in the nation. But the jury that convicted Nichols on 161 counts of 1st-degree murder for the bombing deadlocked on whether to sentence him to death. "It's overcoming the idea of Oklahoma justice," said Nichols' defense attorney Creekmore Wallace, a veteran of 26 death penalty cases in the state. It took Nichols' 12-member state jury just five hours to find him guilty of murder May 26, but jurors deliberated over his punishment for 19 hours over 3 days before concluding on Friday they could not agree on a penalty. The deadlock means Nichols will automatically be sentenced to life in prison for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, which killed 168 people. Bombing mastermind Timothy McVeigh was convicted of the attack in federal court and was executed in 2001. Jurors who favored the death penalty said those who opposed it cited Nichols' jailhouse conversion to Christianity and believed he might be able to help other prisoners and his 3 children. "That was their opinion, and everyone respected their opinion," said a juror who asked not to be identified. Nichols, 49, had already been sentenced to life in prison without parole for the deaths of eight federal law enforcement officers in 1998, after a federal jury also deadlocked over whether Nichols should be put to death. The following year, then-Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy filed state murder charges against Nichols, seeking capital punishment for the death of the other victims, including the fetus of a pregnant woman who was killed. Macy, who sent 54 people to death row, was booted off Nichols' case after a judge ruled Macy's public comments about seeking the death penalty violated a gag order and Oklahoma's rules of professional conduct. Among other comments, Macy gave an interview to CBS in April 2000 in which he said: "I've sent several people to death row for killing one person. I certainly feel that death would be the appropriate punishment for killing 19 babies." The victims of the bombing included 19 children. Oklahoma executed 18 death row inmates in 2001, more than any other state. 14 were executed by lethal injection last year and 5 have been executed so far this year, according to the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. Almost 100 death row inmates are awaiting execution. Larry Pozner, past president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the Oklahoma jury's decision "is part of the tapestry of the death of the death penalty." "The death penalty isn't going to die because public support wanes," said Pozner, of Denver. ``It is going to be extinguished because it is largely an unnecessary, futile and cost-ineffective solution." Some states have become more wary of using the death penalty - most notably Illinois, where former Gov. George Ryan halted all state executions in 2000, then commuted the sentences of all 167 death row inmates before leaving office last year. He declared the 2000 moratorium after 13 men were released from Illinois death row because of faulty convictions. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing mentally retarded people is unconstitutionally cruel. In 2002 it found that only juries, not judges, can call for capital punishment. (source: Associated Press) FLORIDA: Lawyers fret over cap on defense----Some worry the state may enforce a limit on pay, even in big cases, for court-appointed lawyers. Attorney Jeffrey Pfister put in more than 200 hours of work defending Richard L. Adams after he was charged with clubbing and stomping his daughter, Kayla McKean, to death. Adams, who could have faced the death penalty, was sentenced in 2000 to life in prison after Pfister helped convince the jury that the state child-protection system also was at fault for returning the 6-year-old to her father after noticing earlier signs of abuse. The legal bill came to $30,000, to be split between Pfister and the lawyer who worked with him. That's more than four times the $3,500 limit state law puts on what can be paid to a single lawyer appointed by the courts when the public defender has a conflict and can't accept the case. An administrative order from a chief judge gives circuit judges the authority to pay more. Now, with a change to the state constitution that goes into effect July 1, some worry that the state will choose to enforce the lawyer's compensation caps that judges have bypassed for years. If that law had been enforced with the Adams trial, the defense lawyers each would have been paid about $8 an hour -- about $3 over minimum wage. Lawyers around the state say it is impossible for them to effectively defend a client charged with a serious crime if all they have is $3,500 coming in. "What kind of job could you do for $3,500?" Pfister said. "Those caps are probably going to be ruled unconstitutional." If not, some fear the result could be fewer lawyers willing to take on the cases, leaving indigent defendants without adequate representation. "They just want to speed up the process and railroad these people as quickly as they can," said Abe Bonowitz of Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, a Gainesville-based group that opposes death sentences. "They're saying to these lawyers, do it quick -- which means don't do a thorough job." The compensation caps, which include $3,500 for a capital case and $3,000 for a life felony, are included in Revision 7 to Article V of the state constitution. Voters supported the revision in 1998, which shifts responsibility for the courts from counties to the state, a move proponents said would save local governments $200 million to $600 million a year. Advocates for criminal defendants are concerned that under this shift the state might enforce the caps. "It's being discussed daily," said Howard "Skip" Babb Jr., public defender for the 5th Judicial Circuit, which includes Lake, Sumter and Marion counties. If the caps cause good lawyers to back away from cases, he doubts the state will save money, particularly if mistakes are made and trials have to be repeated. Despite the growing statewide debate, the compensation caps are not new. Most of the figures, listed as part of another statute, were last updated in 1981. That statute will be repealed on July 1 when the same figures in Revision 7 go into effect. "The only thing we were doing is consolidating and moving things around," said Skip Martin, deputy staff director for the Article V legislative subcommittee on appropriation. "We didn't address the substance of how much the caps should be. The decision was to just leave the law as it is for now." Stephen Presnell, general counsel for the state Justice Administration Commission, said the procedure will be the same as it has been for the past 20 years. The commission will review lawyers' bills and note whether they are over the limit. The commission's report will be sent to the judge, and the judge will decide what should be paid. "We are authorized, but not required, to object to a motion for payment beyond the cap," Presnell said. "But this is nothing different or new. We will pay based on the judge's ruling." The state Supreme Court in previous cases has supported the idea of paying court-appointed lawyers at a rate that provides "incentive for counsel to invest the time necessary to provide adequate representation," the justices wrote in a September 2002 opinion. In many judicial circuits, administrative orders explicitly give judges the authority to override caps. Many think those precedents and orders still will apply. "The very first time somebody is limited to $3,500, the trial court will follow the precedent," said Bill Gross, an assistant state attorney in Tavares. "It's just a question of time." Still, others wonder why the caps would be included in the constitutional revision unless someone intends to enforce them. The big fear is that defendants risk having lawyers who give them only $3,500 worth of representation, which would be inadequate, said Larry Spalding, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union in Florida. "There shouldn't be a cap," he said. "These should just be guidelines, but it depends on the way people are going to interpret them." (source: Orlando Sentinel)
