Why Georgia cannot afford the death penalty

On Tuesday, lawyers for Jamie Ryan Weis petitioned the US Supreme Court to consider a 4-3 ruling by the Georgia Supreme Court that Jamie’s trial should go ahead, despite the fact that a lack of state funding has deprived Jamie of his Sixth Amendment rights to the assistance of counsel and a speedy trial.

Jamie, who is mentally ill, was arrested and charged with the murder of Catherine King in February 2006. He has since been sitting in prison, waiting for his trial. During that time, he has attempted suicide three times, and his mother – due to be a key witness at his trial – has died.

Under the Sixth Amendment of the US Constitution, the state has a duty to provide indigent defendants with counsel and to ensure a ‘speedy trial’. In line with this obligation, the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council appointed two private lawyers to represent Jamie. However, it then ran out of money to pay them, and the case stalled. Whilst the lawyers asked for the case to be delayed until funds were made available, the prosecution suggested replacing the lawyers with two local public defenders. The public defenders protested that they were overwhelmed and lacked adequate resources to defend Jamie’s case, but the judge approved the prosecution’s motion anyway.

After sitting in prison for two years with no legal representation, Jamie appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court on the grounds that he was denied his right to a speedy trial. The court rejected the appeal in a 4-3 decision, blaming most of the delays on Jamie and his lawyers – despite the fact that the case would have already gone to trial if Georgia had provided enough funding. It is this decision which his lawyers are now asking the US Supreme Court to consider.

Stephen Bright, one of Jamie’s attorneys, called the proceedings a “sham”. He stated that Jamie "had no lawyer working on his case, no guiding hand, none of the basic tools of an adequate defense. Instead, he experienced the most severe imbalance of power between the state and the accused imaginable."

The death penalty places a crushing financial burden on local governments, and Georgia is no exception. Counties shoulder the brunt of capital trial costs, but they are also responsible for delivering standard public services such as health and education – typically more popular areas of funding than assisting criminal defendants. Particularly in times of recession, choices have to be made between the various demands on the public purse and, unfortunately, public defence has been one of the top on Georgia’s list of cutbacks. Recently in Georgia’s Lincoln County, county commissioners refused to pay the legal bill for indigent defendants facing the death penalty, claiming that the cost would bankrupt the county. Clearly something has to give. Either Georgia should assist its capital defendants in line with its constitutional obligations, or recognise that it simply cannot afford the death penalty.