2010.12.02. - Lawyers appointed when murder charges were 'imminent' are removed

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This does not clear anyone. It is just this simple. Until you are charged, you do not get a Court appointed attorney. Someone made a boo boo in appointing on "imminent" and that is not okay. Cannot bill for client/attorney time, travel, reviewing (nothing to review yet), etc. Just no one is charged with murder yet, so no attorney(s) should be appointed at this time.
 
We see from the search warrants that EB admitted to writing the ransom note on October 11, and she became a murder suspect on October 18.
Since neither EB or AB has officially been charged they should never have been assigned DP attorneys.
So I'm glad EB will have a lot of time to cool her heels on the inside and AB, sans passport, can continue being buddies with TA. (Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.) IMO AB has tried to play dumb and LE is letting him have the rope.
 
IIRC, the prosecutors questioned why EB had LD as an attorney when she is not charged with murder, yet...JMHO



D.A. questions choice of defender in Zahra Baker case
Death-penalty specialist appointed without murder charges, prosecutor says.
By Cleve R. Wootson Jr.
cwootson@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Wednesday, Nov. 17, 2010
E. Baker

More Information
Candlelight Vigil for Zahra

Mourners for Zahra Baker: 'We want justice’


The prosecutor in the Zahra Baker case will meet with the N.C. Attorney General's office today to determine if a defense attorney for Elisa Baker was inappropriately appointed at taxpayer expense.
Click to expand...
Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/20...estions-choice-of-defender.html#ixzz16yZ83Hcd
 
I was under the impression Mark Killian wasn't a high profile Murder lawyer of any kind. :waitasec:
 
I feel like I entered the twilight zone when reading about this case now. I understand budget reason's and all of the sound explanations as to why these attorney's were dropped but my gut is telling me to hold on because there is going to be a big twist in this case.
 
tehcloser said:
HICKORY, NC (WBTV) - Two attorneys – including one high-profile lawyer – who were appointed in October to the dad and stepmother of a deceased 10-year-old Hickory girl were removed Wednesday.

TO THE DAD......that really should answer any question of whether or not they are looking at ADAM. He would not have been appointed the "high-profile" attorney if they weren't.
Click to expand...

It says including ONE high-profile lawyer (which we know to be Dubbs). I don't think the attorney appointed to AB was high profile?
 
Lera213 said:
I feel like I entered the twilight zone when reading about this case now. I understand budget reason's and all of the sound explanations as to why these attorney's were dropped but my gut is telling me to hold on because there is going to be a big twist in this case.
Click to expand...

I got your "guts" back! (in other words: ditto your thoughts)
 
Dubbs stated publicly somewhere that she would represent EB no charges IIRC. It will be interesting to see if she holds up to that. I would guess if there are no murder charges brought that she will not.

I'm left with even a more unsettled feeling now than I was with the rape allegations / rape allegations refuted ..... something is up. Either they don't have enough evidence or not all is as it seems to us on the outside.
 
bellyup said:
It says including ONE high-profile lawyer (which we know to be Dubbs). I don't think the attorney appointed to AB was high profile?
Click to expand...

If the other lawyer is more expensive than the average public defender, than I think they would still want to release that expense. It might be that Dubbs was pricey enough that they had to drop one to make sure they could drop her.
 
But IF EB made a deal to take the DP off the table, she would not need the more expensive DP lawyers.
 
In all actuality at the moment no charges have been made on this case except for obstruction. So really EB would only need an attorney for that. As far as this case is concerned as of the moment.

I will say one thing though. It was not a mistake by any means to bring her in when they did. EB did give up location and LDT. It made her comfortable enough to let go of information. JMO though.
 
It might also be a very good thing in another way, as well. It wouldn't help the DA, I think, if these lawyers were on the clock for months before charges - that would just give them longer to work out a defence strategy without anything else to do on the case. The further in advance they are hired, the more technicalities they can think of.

(I do want them to have a fair trial, but months of anticipation could be considered undue advantage that many accused do not have, if that makes sense.)
 
Okay, the amount of money is not the concern. If an attorney is appointed on a murder case, regardless of the attorney's "high profile" status, that attorney gets paid by the state the same amount as an attorney appointed that is of "lesser" profile.

The thing here is that no one is charged with murder yet, so no need for Court appointed attorney for charges that do not exist. (If an attorney is retained or pro bono in advance that is okay.)

Or, we could all just be misunderstanding something here, as Clue Hopper pointed out, maybe only the one attorney is off the matter because of a conflict. That was a different matter entirely and nothing to do with murder charges. So, maybe media just ran with a partial bit of info and now we are all confused.
 
You are right with that. A lot of things we have seen and heard from media reports make us more confused. Attorneys like LD have a whole strew of people she works with that specialize in various things. One little goof up and they see it a mile away. A technicality like turning the camera off during an interview, then back on, one extra person came in, and not stating everyone that is in that rooms name, could get a confession tape thrown out. Just little things like that no one else would notice.
 
WhyaDuck? said:
It might also be a very good thing in another way, as well. It wouldn't help the DA, I think, if these lawyers were on the clock for months before charges - that would just give them longer to work out a defence strategy without anything else to do on the case. The further in advance they are hired, the more technicalities they can think of.

(I do want them to have a fair trial, but months of anticipation could be considered undue advantage that many accused do not have, if that makes sense.)
Click to expand...

JMO - that is exactly what Ms. Dubbs was doing - plotting and planning. I find her motion for the bond reduction, now combined with the search warrants, to be clear in pointing out she was indeed implementing a strategy and that included implicating anyone even remotely possible to begin the wheels of doubt turning and to strike a plea deal for EB as soon as possible. Not saying anything against her, she was doing a good job I think. Albeit a bit premature. Kind of strange to see technicalities work against a possible defendant for a change.
 
Question,
If EB had made a deal to take the DP off the table would we hear about it? Would it be made public knowledge? TIA
 
This is NOT a nudge, just an FYI:

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WhyaDuck? said:
It might also be a very good thing in another way, as well. It wouldn't help the DA, I think, if these lawyers were on the clock for months before charges - that would just give them longer to work out a defence strategy without anything else to do on the case. The further in advance they are hired, the more technicalities they can think of.

(I do want them to have a fair trial, but months of anticipation could be considered undue advantage that many accused do not have, if that makes sense.)
Click to expand...

I hope I can word this to make sense to someone besides myself.

Can the fact that LD was appointed to EB without the charges in place come back to hurt the prosecution? I would think a defence attorney could use that to say the public was biased into thinking she was guilty of murder before she was charged with it?

I hope not but just curious. JMO
 
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