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Utah's High Court Issues Death Penalty Warning

By standdown

That's the title of a report by Pamela Manson in the Saturday Salt Lake Tribune.  LINKConcerned about the lack of qualified lawyers willing to represent indigent death-row inmates, the Utah Supreme Court warned Friday it might be forced to reverse capital sentences.     In the case of condemned killer Michael Anthony Archuleta, a unanimous court said low pay and the complexity of such cases have shrunk the pool of Utah attorneys who will accept them. Associate Chief Justice Michael Wilkins wrote the justices may soon be "forced" to rule a lack of able and willing attorneys is grounds to reverse a death sentence and impose life without parole instead.     State lawmakers have the duty to provide adequate resources to train and compensate death-penalty lawyers, the high court said...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on November 10, 2008 (boomark / email).