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Illinois public defenders plead poverty to try to thwart capital prosecution

By Douglas A. Berman

The Chicago Tribune has this notable article today, headined "Death penalty fund: Public defenders say they're out of money and can't defend man in death penalty case: State funds for this year have already run out."  Here are some excerpts: In a novel legal move, court-appointed attorneys for a man charged in a double murder want the state barred from seeking the death penalty because a state fund to pay for the defense of capital cases has run out of money. Without the funds, Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek said, her office would be unable to pay for the help of expert witnesses, depriving her client, Brian Gilbert, of an adequate defense. Gilbert is charged in the 2007 fatal stabbing of his girlfriend's two sons, Marquise, 12, and Quinton Jackson, 14, after a quarrel over housework...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on April 10, 2009 (boomark / email).