LARGO - Christopher Lunz has a potential date with death and doesn't want to wait.
Lunz is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the slaying of his father. Prosecutors intend to seek the death penalty.
Lunz's attorneys want time to interview witnesses and build a defense strategy, a process that usually takes at least a year in capital cases.
But Lunz won't give them that time. At great risk to himself, he is demanding a speedy trial over the advice of his attorneys.
In custody about four months, Lunz is set for trial on June 5.
Though every defendant is constitutionally entitled to a speedy trial, it is a right rarely demanded in a high-stakes situation such as a death penalty case.
"As a defense attorney, you want to be prepared for trial," said defense lawyer Dyril Flanagan, whom a judge appointed two weeks ago to help Lunz's initial attorney mount a case. "This makes it a little more difficult."
Lunz's defense attorneys said they will not have time to interview witnesses. As of Monday afternoon they hadn't gotten through the entire case file.
"Twenty-seven days and counting," said Lunz's other attorney, Keith Hammond, sounding exasperated as he noted the days before trial. "The quickest I've ever done a murder, I think, was in nine months. We haven't completed reading the file. It's so big."
Defense attorneys will, on very rare occasions, demand a speedy trial, hoping to catch prosecutors flat-footed. A judge must schedule a trial within 45 days of the request.
Much more at
http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/08/Tampabay/Murder_suspect_takes_.shtml
