Phillip Cheatham was rep­re­sent­ed at his death penal­ty tri­al by a lawyer who failed to devel­op a read­i­ly avail­able ali­bi defense and por­trayed Cheatham as a pos­si­ble killer. The lawyer, Ira Dennis Hawver (pic­tured at his dis­bar­ment hear­ing, left), pre­sent­ed Cheatham as a drug-deal­ing killer who would not have left a wit­ness alive to iden­ti­fy him and would have tak­en few­er shots to kill the vic­tims. Hawyer admit­ted he might not have jumped through every ​“American Bar Association hoop” in defend­ing his client. He appeared at his dis­ci­pli­nary hear­ing before the Kansas Supreme Court dressed as Thomas Jefferson. In over­turn­ing Cheatham’s con­vic­tion in 2013, the state Supreme Court con­clud­ed, ​“Hawver’s rep­re­sen­ta­tion bore a greater resem­blance to a per­son­al hob­by engaged in for diver­sion rather than an occu­pa­tion that car­ried with it a respon­si­bil­i­ty for zealous advocacy.”

Cheatham is fac­ing a retri­al. The Kansas Supreme Court has not yet decid­ed on dis­ci­pli­nary action against Hawver, who rep­re­sent­ed him­self and has sued the Court to block his disbarment.

(S. Fry, ​“Hawver appears at Kansas Supreme Court dressed as Thomas Jefferson,” Topeka Capital-Journal, September 12, 2014; pho­to: Topeka Capital-Journal; Kansas v. Cheatham). See Representation and Arbitrariness.

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