death penalty news September 24, 2005
NEW YORK: Local Capital Defender Office faces bittersweet closing - Capital defender ends work, hopes it won't resume When William T. Easton joined the state Capital Defender Office in 1995, he hoped to work himself out of a job. A staunch opponent of the death penalty, Easton believed the office could bring about the end of New York's new capital punishment law by vigorously representing capital murder defendants and exploiting weaknesses in the law. He's won ? sort of. After the state Court of Appeals effectively ended capital prosecutions last year by striking down key provisions of the law, Gov. George Pataki decided to cut funding for the Capital Defender Office by 70 percent if the state Legislature didn't revise the law by June 30 to abide by the court's ruling. The Legislature took no action. Now the cash-strapped agency is slashing its staff statewide and closing its Rochester office, which Easton has headed for six years. It's a bittersweet victory for Easton. Although he worked for the day when capital defenders wouldn't be needed, his feelings are tempered by the possibility that the Legislature will pass new death penalty legislation and the office will have to reopen. "From my perspective, the shutting down of this office ought to be a joyous occasion," Easton said as he took a break from cataloging case files and preparing them for storage. "To some extent, it should be a powerful message that the death penalty is gone. "But it would be a staggering act of fiscal irresponsibility for the state to close down an office, only to reinstitute it a year or two later." Monroe County District Attorney Michael C. Green said it makes no sense financially to maintain an office that costs nearly $13 million annually with no reasonable expectation that it will be revived. "It seems pretty clear that the courts and the state Assembly have made the decision that we're not going to have the death penalty in New York in the near future," he said. "Given that, I don't see the sense of spending $13 million a year to defend people in capital cases when we're not going to have any capital cases. "On the other hand, if they decide at some point to fix the statute, whether it's 10 years or 20 years in the future, one of the things they need to do is to make provisions for competent and qualified defense counsel." When New York restored the death penalty in 1995, the Legislature created the Capital Defender Office to represent indigent capital defendants. It had offices in New York City, Albany and Rochester, with the Rochester office taking cases from 30 counties in western and central New York. Easton, 48, joined the Rochester office at its inception and became its director in April 1999. As first deputy capital defender, he has not only led the efforts of 14 employees, but also represented defendants in court ? most notably Angel Luis Mateo, who landed on death row in 1998 after Monroe County's first death-penalty trial in 46 years. Mateo, however, was spared when the Court of Appeals set aside his death sentence in 2004. Although the court found that Mateo received a fair trial, it ruled that the plea-bargaining provision of the death-penalty law coerced defendants into pleading guilty to avoid the possibility of being executed. Although Mateo's trial and appeal was a benchmark for the Capital Defender Office, Easton wouldn't characterize that case ? or any of the 50 cases of first-degree murder the Rochester office handled ? as the most difficult for him. "Each case was different," he said. "Each case presented challenges." The Rochester office will close by the end of October, and the Albany office will be staffed by one lawyer who is handling the appeal of an inmate on death row. The New York City office will remain open with a skeleton staff to work on appeals and maintain records. Statewide, 11 employees will remain of the 69 from a year ago. Easton is uncertain about his future, although he's certain he'll continue to represent criminal defendants. Capital Defender Kevin Doyle, who heads the state office, praised Easton's performance. "His integrity, diligence and courage just can't be matched," Doyle said. Doyle prefers to be optimistic about his office's fate. "So long as New York is definitely through with the death penalty, the closing of our office is a great thing," he said. "From a personal standpoint, I think it will be a great day if the people of New York decide they don't want capital punishment and there's no need for this office." (source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle)
