Judge Stephen Roth of Utah has decided to force an unwilling attorney to handle the appeal of death-row inmate Ralph Leroy Menzies after no qualified lawyers were willing to take the assignment for the amount of pay offered. “The court ultimately concludes that it has the authority to appoint unwilling counsel to represent the petitioner here, but only if the attorney appointed is justly compensated,” Roth wrote.

The judge will ask attorney Richard P. Mauro for evidence of past and future expenses. If the amounts are reasonable, he will authorize the appropriate payment. The attorney may still be excused if the state is unwilling to make reasonable compensation.

In the estimation of Judge Roth, no other lawyers offered to take the case because, “Without exception, the attorneys contacted indicated that, given what is at stake and the amount of time and effort required to competently litigate any post-conviction death penalty case, the amounts available under the regulation are inadequate.”

The Utah Association for Criminal Defense Lawyers has said that the state’s system of paying a set amount for certain tasks sometimes results in a pay rate for attorneys of $10 an hour.
(Salt Lake Tribune, Feb. 14, 2008). See Costs and Representation.