Lawyers for Khanh Dinh Phan asked the Georgia Supreme Court to dis­miss the charges against him or to bar the state from seek­ing the death penal­ty because the state has been unable to pay for Phan’s defense. After his arrest in 2005, Chris Adams and Bruce Harvey were appoint­ed to rep­re­sent Phan. ​“The state of Georgia has made Mr. Harvey and myself pot­ted plants,” Adams recent­ly said. ​“We are lawyers in name only. … The state of Georgia has failed, and failed mis­er­ably, in this case.” The case has yet to go to tri­al, and the state pub­lic defend­er sys­tem has been unable to pay for attor­ney fees, expert wit­ness­es, and for inves­ti­ga­tors. Gwinnett District Attorney Danny Porter agreed that there has been no mon­ey for the defense, and that the state defend­er sys­tem is ​“fatal­ly flawed,” but urged the judges not to dis­miss the charges or strike the death penal­ty. Porter said, ​“We all agree that fund­ing has not been pro­vid­ed, and I don’t know if there’s a real­is­tic pos­si­bil­i­ty fund­ing will be pro­vid­ed.” The Georgia Supreme Court is expect­ed to rule in a sim­i­lar issue in which a Pike County death penal­ty defen­dant has wait­ed four years to go to tri­al because there was no fund­ing for his defense.

(B. Rankin, ​“Lack of funds for death-penal­ty defense cit­ed in bid for dis­missal,” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 9, 2010). See also Representation and Costs.

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