1/4/12 Ogden Shootings Story: Three More Items From the Standard-Examiner

We'll once again focus the WCF spotlight on three new items concerning the fast-developing 1/4/12 Ogden Shootings story which have been uploaded to the Standard-Examiner website and/or have been published in the print edition since our last update. As to the first two of these, a Scott Schwebke story, and a reader-submitted Letter to the Editor, we'll simply continue to play the reduced role of a story aggregator, and furnish the links, without offering any further editorial commentary of our own:

• Stewart expected to stay at hospital
• Home invader may shout: "Police"

With regard to story #3, we'll expand our discussion, as this new story does offer the invitation for consideration of some background issues which truly open up a can of worms, wethinks, concerning the early treatment of this matter by the Weber County Attorney's Office as a "Capital Murder," "Death Penalty" prosecution.

As a followup to a story which first appeared several days ago on the S-E website, we'll refer our readers to an updated (1/20/12) story, which sets forth the burden that this latest homicide case places on our already heavily overloaded County Prosecutor's Office. The concise lead paragraph provides the gist:

OGDEN -- Handling three major cases at the same time is having an impact on the Weber County Attorney's Office. "We're maxed out," Weber County Attorney Dee Smith said of the drain of three major investigations under way simultaneously.

Read the full story here:

• Weber County Attorney's Office feeling weight of 3 major cases

With three major cases now pending, Dee Smith's already overworked public law office is seriously feeling the heat; but that's only half of the problem, wethinks; and here's the other half of whole troublesome ball of wax, as we see it:

Notably, on the S-E site a couple of days ago a S-E reader identifying himself as Colorado Deputy State Public Defender Bill Schurman posted a comment which we believe to be well worthy of some discussion:

Going for the death of Mr. Stewart will surely weigh down your Office like you have never seen, Mr. prosecutor. It will be more than the self-serving arrest warrant affidavit. As an attorney in Colorado involved in death cases you'll rue the day that you announced death. If you are a little busy now just wait.

While we don't know whether this S-E commenter guy was an imposter or not, we do believe the guy "nails it." The difficulties are compound in death penalty cases too, folks. Here are a couple of web-based resources you can all check out, just to give you "the drift."

First, and "for starters," the whole approach to defense counsel representation is much more complicated in death penalty cases, than in garden variety felony cases. Specifically, Utah death penalty defense lawyers must fulfill the quite rigorous requirements of Utah law, the details of which are statutorily set forth in the Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure:

• Utah Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 8. Appointment of counsel

We're making the assumption that Defendant Matthew Stewart will be entitled to the services of the Public Defender's Office, by the way. We'll have more on that assumption further down this article.

Remember, people. Death penalty-qualified defense lawyers don't grow on trees, due to the aforementioned stringent experiential qualification requirements for death penalty defense counsel.

And here's another good link, an eye-opening S-E article dated June 6, 2010, going into some of the other issues concerning the most recent difficulties of defending death penalty cases in Weber County, and also containing some very good nuts-and-bolts insight on this subject from our old pal, Ogden-based Public Defender, Bernie Allen, now that the tightwad genii in Weber County government have all but dismantled the Weber County Public Defender's Office:

• Weber to pull nearly $250,000 from county budget in '10 to cover death penalty cases.

Among other things, Ace Attorney Bernie mentions that a first class criminal defense will cost, as a rule of thumb, "close to a million dollars for each case," whereas the cheapskates in Weber County government have reduced appointed defense council compensation to... get this:

The rule of thumb for a minimum paid to public defenders in a capital case is [now] a flat rate of $100,000 per case, Allen said, which can equate to $28 an hour given the time commitment needed for an appropriate defense.

And laughably, according to Attorney Bernie, Weber County is pretty much a deadbeat, even in actually paying up these drastically reduced legal fees.

Factor in the required two (count 'em 2) death penalty qualified Capital Murder defense lawyers who'll have to "split" this pittance, and that works out to $50K apiece, not counting the dough they'll have to shell out hiring investigators, conducting pre-trial discovery, and every other expensive detail which goes into defending a Capital Case.

Think about it folks. Why would a competent Utah felony defense attorney even think about getting involved in a major capital murder case which will yield little more than $50 grand in fees, before expenses, when the average felony case will yield just about the same amount, with a lot less overhead, after a mere half-dozen or so court appearances? Nobody in their right mind, that's who.

And what's going to happen when Mr. Stewart possibly gets convicted because Weber County officials only authorized and approved funding for a "cheap-ass, cut-rate, low budget defense?"

The next thing that will happen, assuming that Stewart might get convicted in this twisted scenario is that an upper appellate court will likely go along with what Attorney Bernie suggests in the above S-E story:

"Conviction over-ruled and set aside: 'due to 'ineffective counsel.'"

Here's an informative article on the topic:

• Indigent Defense in Utah: Constitutionally Adequate?

Moreover, even though prosecution and defense counsel sit at tables on opposite sides of the courtroom, the taxpayers will be footing the full bill for the whole upcoming dog and pony show; and the Weber County taxpayers are the ones who'll finally get seriously nicked once again, once the smoke clears on this unfortunate situation, after the politically ambitious County Attorney Dee Smith takes his deep "post performance bow," of course.

Food for thought, People.