Lawyers Say Utah Is Underfunding Death-Penalty Appellate Defense

Utah is not providing sufficient funding to competently represent death-row prisoners during their appeals, according to a motion filed on behalf of Douglas Lovell, the man most recently sentenced to death in the state. Because of that, Lovell’s lawyer Samuel Newton says, Lovell’s death sentence should be vacated and he should be resentenced to life in prison.

Newton bases his claim on a 2008 Utah Supreme Court opinion, Archuleta v. Galetka, in which the court warned that “low levels of public funding for capital cases” and “significantly diminishing numbers of qualified counsel able and willing to represent capital defendants” might force the court to overturn death sentences if it “impedes prompt, constitutionally sound resolution” of a capital case. Newton argues that a billing cap imposed by Weber County officials and threats and meddling by county officials are compromising his ability to zealously represent Lovell.

Lovell has been granted an evidentiary hearing on his post-conviction claims — including whether The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints interfered with the trial by limiting the testimony available from bishops who had worked with Lovell at the prison — and Newton estimates that the hundreds of hours required to investigate and prepare for the hearing would cost about $37,000. However, Weber County officials sent Newton an email accusing him of overbilling the county and meeting with his client too frequently, and threatening that, as a result, they may have to find other attorneys for future appeals. The county has capped his payment for the hearing at $15,000.

“That’s the bind,” Newton said. “Do I represent my client zealously like I’m constitutionally required to do? Or do I tread lightly so I don’t lose my livelihood?” Newton said that the financial strain of handling another death-penalty case has caused stress-related heart problems that led him to request to be removed from that case.

Newton’s motion is not the first time attorneys have expressed concerns about Utah’s capital defense funding. In 2007, the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed an amicus brief in the case of Ralph Menzies. Affidavits submitted by well-known defense lawyers in connection with that brief reported that the final payments they received for handling death-penalty appeals had amounted to compensation at levels of $17 and $19 per hour — about one-tenth their normal billing rates. Defense attorney Richard Mauro said the pay rates make it almost impossible for private attorneys to take on capital appeals: “If you are doing the work the way it’s supposed to be done — and trying to keep the lights on and run the copy machine — it’s really not a feasible thing to do.”