Louisiana
Attorney fees at issue in death row heat case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Attorneys for three condemned killers who filed suit over hot conditions on Louisiana’s death row are asking a federal judge to make the state pay more than three-quarters of a million dollars in fees and costs.
U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson in December said the heat on death row constituted cruel and unusual punishment. He also indicated that the inmates’ lawyers would be entitled to attorneys’ fees.
In May, Jackson approved a remediation plan including air conditioning, providing chests filled with ice and allowing inmates once-daily cold showers. An appeals court delayed implementation of that plan with a stay order in June.
State lawyers argue that the request for attorney fees and costs violates that stay order, according to a story on the dispute in The Advocate. Lawyers for the inmates say the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals only stayed implementation of the remediation plan, not all proceedings in the case.
State lawyers are calling on Jackson to either strike the inmates’ attorneys’ motion for fees and costs or hold it in abeyance until the 5th Circuit rules on all appeals in the case.
Jackson on June 2 had directed the attorneys for death row inmates Elzie Ball, Nathaniel Code and James Magee to file their motion for fees and costs by July 14, which the attorneys did.
The $687,198 in attorneys’ fees sought by 10 attorneys for the three inmates represents more than 3,700 hours of work at hourly rates ranging from $85 to $550.
“The hours expended by Plaintiffs’ counsel were reasonable in light of the amount of work required to litigate this case,” the inmates’ lead lawyer, Mercedes Montagnes, says in the motion. “The unusual and complex nature of this litigation demanded exceptional intellect, creativity, and advocacy skill in advancing Plaintiffs’ claims.”
Montagnes, deputy director of The Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans, is requesting more than $236,000 in attorney fees â?? the most of any of the 10 lawyers. The second-highest amount is nearly $170,000 by fellow Promise of Justice attorney Elizabeth Compa.
The motion notes that the inmates’ attorneys have been representing the inmates on a purely contingent basis and have not been paid to date.
“Absent the ability to recover fees for their time, it would be very difficult for attorneys to take on cases seeking to advance the rights of indigent and marginalized people,” Montagnes argues in the motion. “Attorneys who seek to vindicate fundamental constitutional rights on behalf of disadvantaged groups such as prisoners should be fully compensated for that work.”
James Hilburn, an attorney for state corrections officials, said the state will respond to the motion to set attorneys’ fees and costs if and when a court orders it to do so.
Pennsylvania
Attorney faces disbarrment for abandoning case
BEAVER, Pa. (AP) — A western Pennsylvania attorney has been disbarred after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel determined he abandoned three clients in domestic relations cases and didn’t respond to attempts to discipline him.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports 46-year-old John Biondi, of Beaver County, was first disciplined when a judge in neighboring Butler County removed him from three cases for failing to respond to court notices in three cases. The Office of Disciplinary Counsel initially sought only to censure or reprimand Biondi, but moved forward with disbarment after he repeatedly failed to respond to disciplinary notices or appear at hearings.
The Associated Press could not immediately locate Biondi for comment.
He was disbarred last month.
Arizona
Ruling disallows probation ban on medical pot use
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — A new court ruling says Arizona judges can’t order people on probation to not use medical marijuana.
A split ruling issued Friday by a three-judge state Court of Appeals panel in Tucson overturns a Cochise County Superior Court judge’s order that a drug-case probationer not use medical marijuana.
The probationer had agreed to a plea agreement that included the prohibition but later tried to changed.
The panel’s majority ruling says judges can normally prohibit use of marijuana as a term of probation. But the majority ruling says that authority must bow to the medical marijuana law’s provision that exempts use of marijuana for medical purposes from criminal laws.
A dissenting judge disagreed, citing the probationer’s acceptance of the terms of his probation.
Connecticut
Man accused of shooting turtle of his girlfriend
STONINGTON, Conn. (AP) — Authorities say a Connecticut man shot to death his girlfriend’s pet turtle.
Sgt. Louis Diamanti, Stonington’s animal control officer, says 31-year-old Steven Richard used a BB gun rifle to shoot the turtle in the head Friday night outside a home.
Police had responded after a neighbor reported an argument between Richard and the woman who lives in the house. They discovered the dead turtle in the yard.
Police say Richard did not explain why he shot the pet. A phone listed for Richard had been disconnected Monday. He was released on a promise to appear Aug. 4 in court on a charge of cruelty to animals.
Diamanti says he does not know what type of turtle it was.
Maine
Man handcuffed after violating release condition
WINSLOW, Maine (AP) — A Sidney man who was charged earlier this year with sex trafficking is in trouble again, this time for attending a wedding in Winslow.
The Kennebec Journal reports that 47-year-old Frederick Horne was handcuffed by police in the parking lot of Fort Halifax Park on Sunday. He was summoned to appear in court on two counts of violating conditions of his earlier release.
Kennebec County District Attorney Maeghan Maloney says Horne violated those terms by associating with the bride and another woman at the wedding. The women had been among several found at Horne’s home in April when he and his son were charged with sex trafficking for allegedly running a prostitution operation.
The new charges are misdemeanors. Horne was released after being taken to the local police station.
