I believe it's set in statute. See 63 OS 945(G)(4).
law.justia.com
I'm confused. the doc attached is a motion by the state to withhold, not by the defense? Six months is a long time and personally I would prefer to get that info sooner but evil defendants are not behind this.
Can you elaborate ?
Agreed. The state is still building/strengthening its case. They've asked the autopsy results be withheld while they continue to do that. I think they have certain evidence they believe exists and they're still trying to nail it down. They don't want those results in the hands of the defense so that that evidence suddenly disappears or becomes not available. JMO as to the possible why.
Thanks for explaining -- I think if the perps could "wrangle" some sort of 'deal' they would; however as far as the cause of death being withheld , that is beyond their power.
Won't the defendants still have access to the full report via their discovery requests to the prosecution? I'm under the impression that the motion to extend the time to withhold the full report is to withhold it from public access. If there are plea deals being negotiated, I don't see how the defendants could fully negotiate without having access to the full report...?
possibly in order to keep it being disseminated to those not currently charged while keeping the door open to gather evidence and charge others who may have been peripherally involved?
Where did you see that Paul Grice had hired a private attorney? He had indicated he could not afford one during his court appearance. Did something change?
Manner of Death is what this case is about. We don't know the cause of death of these women but I believe the murder charges are a result of the ME's determination that Manner of Death= homicide.
You are correct. Manner of death is homicide. I would imagine that releasing the complete report with the cause of death may possibly inflame the general public to the point that everyone wants to hang each defendant or it may be that the general public just doesn't need to know and the families would rather not have those details publicized before they have time to come to terms with that knowledge. I can imagine how awful it would be to have your children be told something like that by another child or for them to overhear someone else talking about it.
As a side note, in some rural counties, all attorney's registered in the county (represent clients there) are considered "reserve public defenders".
I agree. They have a right to a fair trial and I will not be surprised if the prosecution wants the death penalty. I think a Judge will decide (or maybe has already decided) that the release the report publicly prior to trial would be prejudicial to the defense. But I have no doubt that the defense attorneys have access to it.
The state of Georgia does the same thing. My brother is a private attorney there (and doesn’t even currently work in criminal law — although he used to work for the US Attorney General) and he’s had to serve as a public defender in the past. If the court has more cases than the current public defender’s office can handle, all members of the Georgia Bar are subject to being assigned to handle the case. The court essentially goes down the list and assigns them on a rotation.
