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Executions in Utah have come to a halt for the foreseeable future because the state is having difficulty finding lawyers who are both qualified and willing to take on death row appeals cases.

Utah has nine inmates on death row but no execution date set for any of them. The state is struggling to find the inmates defense attorneys, without which they cannot be put to death.

Lack of Qualified Attorneys

However, post-conviction death penalty cases are complex, and state courts require attorneys who handle these cases to have a certain level of education and experience. There are currently fewer than 10 defense attorneys in Utah qualified to take such a case.

Compensation is an Issue

Additionally, one, sometimes two attorneys are assigned to post-conviction death penalty appeals, which are notoriously time consuming to handle. And the attorneys qualified to take the cases usually refuse because of inadequate pay.

Defense attorneys in their private practices typically charge between $150-250 per hour. Death penalty appeals take hundreds of hours of work and the state caps defense attorney pay at $37,500. Depending on the number of hours an attorney puts in, the hourly rate could fall below $10.

Constitutional Right to Legal Aide

Assistant Utah Attorney General Thomas Brunker argues that not all of the inmates are entitled to a court-appointed defense attorney for their appeals. But defense attorneys Michael Zimmerman and Troy Booher say inmates who are condemned to die have a constitutional right to legal aide.

According to Zimmerman and Booher, this right is crucial to ensuring that an inmate’s sentence is appropriate before he or she is put to death.

(Source: The Salt Lake Tribune online)

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