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Attorneys Feel Helpless Against Death Wishes

By standdown

That's the title of a news article in today's Lexington Herald-Leader regarding Marco Allen Chapman, who has waived his appeals and is scheduled to be executed in Kentucky tomorrow evening.  LINKJohn Delaney faced the toughest moment of his legal career ? his condemned client wanted to drop his appeals and die by injection, an act Delaney opposed and had been trained to try to prevent."What do you say?" asked Delaney, a public defender in Northern Kentucky who represented Marco Allen Chapman.It's a question that has arisen 131 times since states resumed executions in 1977. And each time it leaves defense lawyers struggling against their training to act in the best interest of their clients and justice."We're trained as lawyers to be an advocate for someone and fight as hard as we can," said Stephen Harris, a University of Baltimore law professor who represented execution volunteer John Thanos in Maryland in 1994...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on November 20, 2008 (boomark / email).