Utah County Fires Lawyer Who Criticized Its Underfunding of Death-Penalty Appeals

A Utah coun­ty has fired an appeals lawyer who had pub­licly crit­i­cized the coun­ty’s under­fund­ing of death-penalty cases. 

Attorney Samuel Newton (pic­tured) — hired by Weber County to han­dle the appeals of con­demned pris­on­ers Douglas Lovell and Floyd Maestas, as well as oth­er indi­gent crim­i­nal defen­dants in the coun­ty — had his con­tract ter­mi­nat­ed by County Commissioner James Harvey, who said Newton’s com­ments to the media about under­fund­ing were ​“harm­ful to the coun­ty’s rep­u­ta­tion.” Harvey also crit­i­cized Newton for assert­ed­ly spend­ing too much time devel­op­ing a rela­tion­ship with his clients when ​“all the state wants to know is if the appro­pri­ate deci­sion has been made.” 

The American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases require that a cap­i­tal defense attor­ney ​“estab­lish a rela­tion­ship of trust with the client, and should main­tain close con­tact with the client.” Newton had pre­vi­ous­ly with­drawn from Lovell’s case after argu­ing that the finan­cial strain placed upon him from the coun­ty’s fund­ing cap, and the coun­ty’s inter­fer­ence with his abil­i­ty to com­mu­ni­cate with his client, has caused him stress-relat­ed heart prob­lems. In an email to the Salt Lake Tribune, Newton said that “[t]he state gives enor­mous resources to the pros­e­cu­tion” and ​“must sim­i­lar­ly com­mit to equal­ly and ade­quate­ly sup­port crim­i­nal defense attor­neys, which is a right guar­an­teed by the United States Constitution.” He said that defense attor­neys — and espe­cial­ly solo prac­ti­tion­ers such as him­self — ​“should not have to per­son­al­ly bear and front the finan­cial cost for the enor­mous review required in a capital case.” 

The pay­ment dis­pute with Weber County, Newton said, left him feel­ing as thought he ​“had to choose” between sup­port­ing his fam­i­ly finan­cial­ly and effec­tive­ly rep­re­sent­ing his clients. 

Commissioner Harvey told Newton that his con­tract to han­dle the appeals of indi­gent Weber County defen­dants has been ter­mi­nat­ed effec­tive January 31. Harvey said, ​“I don’t agree with giv­ing a guy an open check­book because he wants to cre­ate a rela­tion­ship with a con­vict­ed felon on the tax­pay­ers’ dime.” 

In a let­ter to the judge, Lovell wrote, ​“For the first time, I got an attor­ney who rep­re­sent­ed me to the fullest, … who knows my case inside & out & now the coun­ty had pulled the rug on fund­ing him.” Ralph Dellapiana, chair­man of the Utah Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers cap­i­tal defense com­mit­tee, said that the state should not expect cap­i­tal defense attor­neys to work for free. ​“That’s a prob­lem, the state refus­ing to pay qual­i­fied coun­sel to do the nec­es­sary work for appeals in death penal­ty cas­es,” he said. ​“And the solu­tion is either to pay for it or end the death penalty.”