"Court considers delayed death penalty case," is the title of Andria Simmons' Atlanta Journal-Constitution report.
The state's highest court must decide whether a six-year delay in bringing a Gwinnett County death penalty defendant to trial violated Khanh Din Phan's right to a speedy trial.
The Supreme Court of Georgia heard arguments Monday from defense attorney Christopher W. Adams. He said Superior Court Judge Ronnie K. Batchelor should have dismissed all charges against Phan because a "systemic breakdown" in the state's public defender system has left it chronically underfunded.
Khanh Dinh Phan is charged with multiple counts of murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony in the Dec. 29, 2004 execution-style murders of Hung Thai, 37 and his 2-year-old son, Hugh Thai, over a gambling debt. He is also accused of shooting Hoangoah Ta, Thai's wife, who survived and identified him as the killer.
Adams said he went for years without getting paid for representing Phan and he still has not received all the money he needs to hire experts and travel with an investigator, translator and his co-counsel, Bruce Harvey, to Phan's home country of Vietnam to gather evidence.
Adams also argued that the trial judge should not have decided to remove him and Harvey from the case and replace them state Capital Defender's Office employees. Doing so violates Phan's right to effective counsel, Adams said.
The AP report is, "Ga. Supreme Court considers speedy trial claim," by Greg Bluestein. It's via the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
An accused killer has spent more than six years in jail awaiting a trial, his case becoming a flashpoint for the state's troubled public defender system. On Monday, the Georgia Supreme Court heard arguments over whether the system broke down or the defense attorneys simply used delay tactics.
Khahn Dinh Phan has been awaiting trial since March 2005 on charges of killing a Vietnamese man and his 2-year-old son. His attorneys, Christopher Adams and Bruce Harvey, asked the judges to dismiss the charges, arguing that he has not had a speedy trial. Prosecutors blamed the lawyers for the repeated delays.
"All of the delays are attributed not to the defendant but to the defendant's counsel," said Gwinnett County District Attorney Danny Porter.
The court isn't expected to rule for weeks, but several of the justices indicated they were upset by the slow pace of the case. Chief Justice Carole Hunstein pointedly asked Adams several times when the case would go to trial, and seemed frustrated when told it would take at least a year.
And:
The case became a focal point in the funding debate for the public defender system when his attorneys said they weren't properly paid.
A Gwinnett County judge denied Phan's motion to dismiss his trial in 2009, but a divided Georgia Supreme Court threw out the ruling and instructed the lower court to determine if a speedy trial violation had occurred. That judge found that Phan's rights had not been violated, and said his attorneys should be replaced by state lawyers.
The attorneys again brought the case to the Georgia Supreme Court, arguing that Harvey was never compensated for his time and that Adams only got partial payments. They also contended the state denied them funding to hire expert witnesses and money to travel to Vietnam to gather facts about their client and interview the sole eyewitness to the shooting.
Earlier coverage of the case and Georgia indigent defense issues begins at the link.
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