State high court rejects request to bar death penalty

By Bill Rankin

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Georgia Supreme Court on Thursday narrowly rejected a bid to bar prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against a defendant who has sat in jail for more than three years awaiting trial because there has been no money for his defense.

The 4-3 ruling said the state did not violate Jamie Ryan Weis' right to a speedy trial and placed some of the blame on the defendant and his attorneys. Weis is charged with killing Catherine King, a 73-year-old Pike County woman, during a burglary in 2006.

The case had been closely watched because the court might have determined that Georgia could not afford the death penalty in times of budgetary crisis. But the court made no such determination. The appeal had asked the court to dismiss the charges or bar the state from seeking death, because Weis had been without lawyers for more than two years.

Justice Harold Melton, writing for the majority, said a lack of state funds to pay for Weis' defense contributed to some of the delay, but it wasn't the sole factor. "Weis' own behavior, and the behavior of his attorneys, also contributed to the delay," Melton said.

Melton also wrote that Weis asserted his right to a speedy trial too late -- after his own refusal to work with replacement lawyers and after his initial lawyers helped contribute to the case's delay.

In a forceful dissent, Justice Hugh Thompson disagreed.

Because Weis could not prepare for trial until he had funds for his defense, it would have been reckless for him to ask for a speedy trial, Thompson wrote.

"If the state wants to seek the death penalty against an indigent defendant, it must provide adequate funds for a full and vigorous defense," he wrote. "The state cannot shirk this responsibility because it is experiencing budgetary constraints."

Thompson added, "The bottom line here is that the state should not be allowed to fully arm its prosecutors while it hamstrings the defense and blames defendant for any resultant delay."

The cost of defending courthouse killer Brian Nichols in Fulton County so drained the state's public defender agency that it had to stop paying for Weis' initial lawyers. Weis was initially appointed private attorneys Bob Citronberg and Tom West to represent him. For the first several months, the state paid the lawyers, but it stopped as expenses mounted in the Nichols case.

Pike County prosecutors then asked trial judge Johnnie Caldwell to replace Citronberg and West with two state-salaried public defenders. Caldwell agreed.

Weis refused to talk to his new lawyers, who both moved to withdraw. One of them, Tamara Jacobs, noted she was already carrying more than 400 cases and had not maintained the certifications necessary to defend capital cases.

Ultimately, Citronberg and West returned to the case, and the defender council approved $255,000 for the defense. But those funds were never made available.

Writing for the majority, Melton said Caldwell was right to appoint the public defenders. If they had concerns about their abilities to represent Weis, Melton said, this could have been addressed on appeal -- presumably, after Weis was convicted and sentenced to death.

Pike County District Attorney Scott Ballard said he was pleased the court "has recognized we had no interest in delaying this case and were ready to move forward from day one, and we're now ready to move forward."

Atlanta lawyer Stephen Bright, who argued the case in Weis' behalf, said the court's majority "is completely wrong on the facts and wrong on the law."

Caldwell was going to give Weis "only token representation at a perfunctory trial where the outcome would have been a foregone conclusion," Bright said. "In upholding that, the Georgia Supreme Court majority abdicated its constitutional and moral authority to protect the right to counsel."