The Georgia Supreme Court ruling in Phan v. The State is available in Adobe .pdf format.
"High court warns ‘clock is ticking' in Gwinnett death penalty case," by Steve Visser for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The Georgia Supreme Court warned Monday that Gwinnett County is running out of time to try a man accused of the execution-style killings of a toddler and his father over a gambling debt.
The high court declined Khahn Dinh Phan's appeal that his death-penalty case be thrown out because he has not been brought to trial in nearly seven years, in part because of delays caused by the state's financially strained indigent defense system. But the court warned that Gwinnett County Superior Court needs to resolve Phan's case or risk that it will be dismissed if the delay becomes more egregious.
"We warn the clock is ticking," said the opinion by Chief Justice Carol Hunstein. Further delays caused by state budget problems could well tip the scales ... in Phan’s favor.”
Hunstein wrote that the Phan case is an "object lesson in the perils" of underfunding the state's indigent fund, which has resulted in Phan being in the Gwinnett County jail since his arrest in March 2005. He is accused of the the Dec. 29, 2004 shootings of a Vietnamese couple and their 2-year-old son in their Lilburn home.
And:
“We emphasize that our determination that the trial court acted within its discretion should in no way be construed as an endorsement of the system that has led us down this tortuous path thus far,” the opinion said. “The interests of no one -- neither prosecutors nor defendants, victims nor taxpayers -- are served by the uncertainty and delay attending to a chronically underfunded indigent defense system.”
"Top Georgia court declines to drop murder charge against man awaiting trial since 2005," is the AP filing by Greg Bluestein. It's via the Republic.
The Georgia Supreme Court refused to dismiss murder charges against an accused killer who claimed his right to a speedy trial was violated because he has spent nearly seven years awaiting a trial. But the opinion released Monday said the case underscores the dangers of underfunding the criminal justice system.
The unanimous ruling found that both the government and Khahn Dinh Phan share the blame for the delays in his trial for the killings of a Vietnamese man and his 2-year-old son in 2004. He was arrested in March 2005 and the setbacks in his case have made it a focal point in the funding debate over the state's oft-maligned public defender system.
In Monday's opinion, Chief Justice Carol Hunstein called the case an "object lesson in the perils of such underfunding" and used the decision to urge Georgia legislators to address the consequences of a financially-strained public defender system.
"The fact that the dismissal of murder charges has had to be legitimately considered for reasons so far removed from the accused's guilt or innocence underscores the stakes involved," she wrote. "We can only hope that those within the branches of government empowered to remedy these institutional problems will make it a priority to do so."
She made clear that the opinion should not be seen as endorsement of the "system that has led us down this tortuous path thus far" and warned that further delays caused by state budget problems or policy decisions could tip the scales of the case in Phan's favor.
Earlier coverage of the Phan case and Georgia indigent defense issues begins at the link.
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