Death penalty cases inherently slow

Recently, Utah Third District Court Judge Paul Maughan unfairly disparaged the ethical, capable defense team from the Salt Lake Legal Defender Association (LDA) in allowing that team to withdraw from representing capital murder defendant Curtis Allgier.

Contrary to the judge's accusations, LDA has expertly handled the defense under enormous funding and time pressures. The real culprits behind the delays in the case are the incredible financial and human costs associated with the death penalty itself. Taxpayers should ask whether those costs justify putting a single person to death.

LDA is known locally and nationally as a model public defender organization for which taxpayers should be proud. Likewise, its handling of the Allgier case has been exemplary even in the face of its crushing caseload. LDA expertly handles thousands of felony cases annually while simultaneously representing over ten other death penalty defendants.

These capital cases drain budgets despite their relatively small number because each one requires defense attorneys to investigate the defendant's entire life history, consult with mental health and medical experts and obtain every document from birth certification on, including the accused's school and childhood medical records. These efforts are labor intensive and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thus, LDA has been forced to devote millions of taxpayer dollars for just a few select cases that may or may not end up in death sentences while, at the same time, attending to its regular caseload.

Despite this overwhelming burden, LDA has not received any additional funding and has, instead, suffered through the same budget crunches that governmental agencies and private businesses have suffered for the past three years. Despite the lack of resources, LDA has thoroughly prepared each of these capital cases and effectively represented all of its remaining clients.

Judge Maughan's ruling mistakenly accuses Mr. Alligier's attorneys of being "solely" responsible for the lengthy delays in the case. Prosecutors knew when they charged this case that a capital prosecution would place the case on a slow track. Prosecutors have no obligation to file capital charges and may, instead, file a straight murder charge that carries no death penalty. The decision to seek death creates inherent delays that prosecutors, not defense lawyers, opted to incur.