GEORGIA & ALABAMA Updates

Georgia's Death Penalty Prosecutions Stalled by High Costs
Posted: April 21, 2009

Georgia is experiencing a crisis in its death penalty trial system with high costs stalling death penalty prosecutions. Almost 1 in 5 of all pending capital cases in Georgia is stalled because of a lack of funds to pay for the defense. "We can't defend the case without any money," said James Yancey, one death penalty defense lawyer. "The experts we need won't work for free." Forsyth Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Bagley called it “a constitutional crisis," as defense attorneys are forced to file contempt motions and are asking to withdraw from their cases. The courts were hoping for the necessary funding to become available, but after the House put $1.1 million into the state Public Defender Standards Council’s budget for capital cases, the Senate cut it out.

Alabama Murder Cases Reopened After Exposure of Botched Autopsy
Posted: April 20, 2009

Bridget Lee spent nine months in jail in Alabama after being charged with the murder of her newborn child. Prosecutors filed capital murder charges based on an autopsy performed by Dr. Corinne Stern. Stern’s autopsy concluded the baby had been suffocated because of bruises on the forehead and mouth. But when Lee's attorneys questioned the autopsy, the District Attorney had other experts review the case, and six different forensics experts found the baby was stillborn and had died of infection. The bruises Stern said indicated suffocation were actually signs of decomposition. Charges were dismissed, and the case has prompted a review of as many as 100 other homicide cases. Alabama’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Kenneth Snell, said he would review every homicide autopsy Dr. Stern had performed in her 16 months in Alabama. Dismissing the charges against Ms. Lee, Circuit Judge James Moore said he had never seen an expert make such a bad mistake in his 30 years of law practice. “What has happened in this courtroom today is absolutely unprecedented,” said Moore. Dr. Stern is now a medical examiner in Texas.

Read more about these at Death Penalty Information Center and Rick Halperin's Death Penalty News & Updates (see columns for both on this home page -lower right hand side - and others as well. NOTE: these may take a few moments to load.