In one of the more interesting (ridiculous?) defense strategies that I’ve seen lately, lawyers for an accused murderer are trying to avoid the death penalty for their client — because their salaries aren’t high enough.

Lee Edward Stephens is accused of murdering a correctional officer at Jessup back in 2006, along with his co-defendant Lamarr Harris. Because Harris is being represented by public defenders, private attorneys were hired by the Anne Arundel county public defender’s office for Stephens, to avoid any conflict of interest during their trials.

The private attorneys are being paid $50 per hour — a rate under which they could afford to devote 400 hours to the case under Maryland rules, which cap earnings for an attorney trying a possible death penalty case at $20,000 per attorney. Mississippi is the only state that pays at a lower rate.
The lawyers argue that the salary cap will not even allow them to cover their overhead costs, as they anticipate working up to 1,200 hours on the case. They filed a motion yesterday stating that death penalty should therefore be taken off the table because they are not being adequately compensated for their work on the case.

In the motion, the lawyers wrote that the low salary leaves them with two choices: “[to] represent Mr. Stephens to the best of their ability and face financial ruin, or neglect Mr. Stephens’ case to pay the bill and book their client a bunk in death row.”

The judge is not expected to rule on the motion under later this year.

Any thoughts on this? Your feelings on capital punishment aside, should an accused murder avoid the death penalty just because his lawyers don’t feel they’re being compensated fairly?

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