Defense funding called inadequate in slaying of correctional officer
BY SCOTT SANDLIN
Albuquerque Journal
News Report
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Lawyers for inmates charged with killing a guard during a Santa Rosa prison riot asked the District Court to throw out the death penalty because the state isn’t providing enough money for an adequate defense.
The motion is based on a New Mexico Supreme Court opinion issued in October in which the court stayed the death penalty prosecution unless sufficient funding could be appropriated for an adequate defense.
The 2008 Legislature did not appropriate any additional money for the case.
The motion was filed by attorneys for Robert Young and Reis Lopez, the two defendants remaining in what was a 15-defendant case when indictments were filed in 2000.
Inmates were charged in the death of corrections officer Ralph Garcia during a prison disturbance on Aug. 31, 1999. Death penalty prosecutions were authorized for only a few.
Attorneys Billy Blackburn and Jacquelyn Robins, who undertook representation on a contract from the New Mexico public defender, had previously sought to withdraw from the case. They said funding caps in the case imposed financial burdens on their small legal practices so severe that it compromised representation of their clients.
Bernalillo County District Judge Neil Candelaria, who was assigned to hear the out-of-district case, rejected their request.
Because the case involved a capital penalty, the issue went straight to the Supreme Court.
The defense suggested three potential fixes for the situation, according to arguments at the Supreme Court: allow withdrawal of Blackburn and Robins and have new attorneys appointed; order the public defender to provide adequate compensation; or dismiss the death penalty, and thus dramatically limit the scope of the case.
The court said it would be detrimental to the system to let the attorneys withdraw after they’ve interviewed dozens of witnesses and reviewed thousands of pages of documents.
Copyright 2008 Albuquerque Journal