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: Capital Defense Weekly

Between a rock and a hard place

By Karl R. Keys, Esq.

via AP & Skelly John Delaney faced the toughest moment of his legal career - his condemned client wanted to drop his appeals and die by injection, an act Delaney opposed and had been trained to try to prevent. “What do you say?” asked Delaney, a public defender in northern Kentucky who represented Marco Allen Chapman. It’s a question that has arisen 131 times since states resumed executions in 1977, and each time it leaves defense lawyers struggling against their training to act in the best interest of their clients and justice… A judge granted Chapman’s request to dismiss Delaney and appointed him standby counsel in case Chapman changed his mind. On Wednesday, the Kentucky Supreme Court rejected two requests to halt the planned execution, saying Chapman is competent to make his own decisions about whether to die...continue to full post

Full post as published by Capital Defense Weekly on November 20, 2008 (boomark / email).