Race and the death penalty is rearing its ugly head in the Georgia case of Curtis Osborne, who has a June 4 execution date.
Today's Atlanta Journal Constitution reports, "Racism 'infected' killer's defense?," by Bill Rankin.
With his tall Stetson hat, diamond rings, gold chains and a thin handlebar mustache, attorney Johnny Mostiler was for years the face of indigent defense at the Spalding County Courthouse in Griffin.
Known as "Boss Hog," Mostiler drove a Cadillac convertible with cattle horns as hood ornaments and, over a decade, held the contract for Spalding's public defender work. On top of a civil practice, Mostiler carried more than 600 indigent criminal cases at a time.
Mostiler died of a massive heart attack in 2000. Today, his defense of killer Curtis Osborne 18 years ago will be the focus of lawyers asking the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Osborne's death sentence.
Osborne's lawyers from the Atlanta firm King & Spalding contend Mostiler was so racially prejudiced he presented a paltry defense on his client's behalf. They will allege that Mostiler, who was white, did not tell Osborne, who is African-American, there was an offer for Osborne to plead guilty to a life sentence.
"The system breaks down when it's infected or corrupted by racism," said Bill Hoffmann, one of Osborne's lawyers. "It's a fundamental principle of our justice system that individuals be given zealous representation. It's particularly outrageous that Mr. Osborne was denied that because of racial bias."
In 2006, the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals, in Atlanta, rejected claims that Mostiler's alleged racial animosity entitled Osborne to a new trial. The court noted that Mostiler, called to testify during Osborne's appeal, said he recalled giving Osborne the state's plea offer.
Osborne is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 4. He was sentenced to death for fatally shooting Linda Lisa Seaborne and Arthur Jones on Aug. 7, 1990.
An earlier version in the AJC was titled, "Racist defense put killer on death row, attorney says," also reported by Rankin.
The parole board will hear the clemency request eight days after it spared Samuel David Crowe hours before he was to be executed.
Former President Jimmy Carter, former deputy U.S. Attorney General Larry Thompson and former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher are sending letters to the board, requesting clemency for Osborne, Hoffmann said.
Fletcher, who voted in 1993 to uphold Osborne's death sentence, said he recalled Mostiler's "apparent ineptness" because he raised so few issues on appeal.
"As is now all too well apparent, it is Mr. Osborne who is suffering due to Mr. Mostiler's grave shortcomings and his racial prejudices of perhaps a lifetime," Fletcher wrote the board.
Coverage of this month's Crowe commutation is here.
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