Office of the Legal Defender
Serving Justice since 1995

Defending More than Defendants –
Constitutional Rights& Civic Commitment
The members of the Office of the Legal Defender
[OLD] of Maricopa County are driven in their
devotion to general as well as legal issues. OLD staff
maintain active participation in local legislation,
environment programs, animal welfare interests,
children’s programs, and other community activities.
Some of the agencies who benefit from Legal
Defender staff support are Agape House; All-Star
Kids Tutoring; American Civil Liberties Union;
Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice – Board;
Arizona Capital Representation Project; Arizona
Humane Society; Arizona Public Defender
Association; Arizona Railway Museum – Board;
Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum; Arizona State Bar
Association – Criminal Practice and Procedure
Committee; ASU College of Law Alumni Association
– Board; Arizona Theatre Company; Audubon
Society; Civil War Preservation Trust; Extreme
Makeover – Phoenix Home Project; Friends of
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INSIDE THIS REPORT:
2

The Whole Truth – The Rest of the Story

3

Mission

4

Goals

7

Clients

8

Budget -- Cases -- Dedication

–

–

Vision

OLD Members

Ring Reflections
Dealing with the aftereffects of the Ring
decision (June 2002) has resulted in widespread
reflection on the death penalty process in
America. The United States is now the only
western democracy that imposes the death
penalty. Some U.S. governors of states with the
death penalty are calling for reviews of their
state systems as numerous death row inmates
are found to have been innocent.
In 2003, Illinois Gov. George Ryan
spoke at Northwestern University College of
Law and stated, “Supreme Court Justice Potter
Stewart has said that the imposition of the death
penalty on defendants in this county is as
freakish and arbitrary as who gets hit by a bolt
of lightning.” Later, Ryan noted, “…after
affirming hundreds of death penalty decisions,
Justice Blackmun came to the realization, in the
twilight of his distinguished career, that the
death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness,
discrimination, caprice and mistake. He
expressed frustration with a 20-year struggle to
develop procedural and substantive safeguards.
In a now famous dissent he wrote in 1994,
‘From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker
with the machinery of death.’ ” [Callins v. Collins,
No 93-7054, Supreme Court of the U.S.,
February 22, 1994.]
Such comments and the record of the
criminal system add to the sense of urgency in
OLD defense team members as they deal with
Arizona’s death penalty. They fight concerns
about justice and due process in a system
increasingly designed for efficiency. They stand,
a client’s critical courtroom component.
™™™

Office of the Legal Defender -- FY04 Report -- Page 1

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Animal Care & Control; Habitat for Humanity -Costa Rica & Phoenix Projects; Heard Museum –
Montevista Club; Liberty Wildlife; Life Choices
Women’s Clinic; Little League; Mesa Southwest
Museum; National Association of Criminal
Defense Attorneys; National Association of Legal
Assistants; National Defender Investigators
Association; Nature Conservancy; National
Wildlife Federation; Parent-Teacher Associations;
Phoenix Zoo; Planned Parenthood; Public
Television – Channel 8; Red Cross; Roman
Catholic Diocese of Phoenix; Diocesan Review
Board; Salvation Army; Scouts of America - Boy &
Girl; Save the Manatee Club; Sojourners; Sierra
Club; St. Agnes School – Board; St. Mary’s Food
Bank; St. Vincent de Paul; Tempe Judicial
Advisory Board; Thomas J. Pappas School; United
Way; and World Wildlife Fund.
By constant advocacy of myriad issues, OLD
continues to be a vital voice for our world. ™™™

The WholeTruth --

The Rest of the Story . . .
All of the legal work done at the
Office of the Legal Defender is important –
whether to the individual client or to the
public in general. But people sometimes get
caught up in the court process, the statistics,
and the media hype, and they forget that
human stories live behind it all. This annual
report spotlights a few of our clients who
were accused of felonies. Our hope that is in
telling the full stories of these individuals,
others will see the person behind the crime
and will understand more of what led to that
client’s involvement in criminal activity. In
knowing the whole story, others will be better
able to recognize the appropriate treatment
and disposition for each client, and in a
broader sense, come away with an awareness
that all stories have multiple facets that
deserve review before rendering an opinion.
Through knowledge come understanding and
compassion.

“Mitigation is the
biography
of mental disability.
It is the explanation of
what influences converged
in the years, days, hours,
minutes, and seconds
leading up to the capital
crime, and how information
was processed in a damaged
brain.
It is a basis for
compassion –

≈y≈y≈
NOTE: For the sake of privacy, privilege, and
discretion, the names of our clients will not be used in
the following case summaries. Instead, simple
designations of “Client A,” “Client P,” etc. will serve to
represent the people in each case.

Client A, a 47-year-old African-American
male, stood accused of two murders that had
occurred 20 years ago. Cold-case detectives
using DNA testing/findings ultimately
connected him to these crimes. The charged
offenses involved the strangling and beating
deaths of two prostitutes in a dispute about
money. The Client’s prior record included a
10-year sentence for the strangling death of a
man whose car he had stolen. Client A was
arrested in that case when he attempted to
return the stolen car to the victim’s home.
Through the painstaking efforts of OLD’s
records specialist and investigators on this
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continued from page 2

`

case, the defense team was able to obtain the Client’s
school records and contact old neighbors, past
friends, and spouses/partners.

MISSION
THE MISSION OF THE MARICOPA
COUNTY OFFICE OF THE LEGAL
DEFENDER IS TO PROVIDE
QUALITY LEGAL
REPRESENTATION TO INDIGENT
INDIVIDUALS ASSIGNED TO US
BY THE COURT, THUS
SAFEGUARDING THE
FUNDAMENTAL LEGAL RIGHTS
OF EACH MEMBER OF THE
COMMUNITY.

VISION
BY PROVIDING OUR INDIGENT CLIENTS WITH
THE HIGHEST QUALITY LEGAL REPRESENTATION,
THE COMMUNITY WILL BENEFIT SIGNIFICANTLY
FROM OUR WORK, INCLUDING

1.

SETTING A LEGAL STANDARD WITH OUR
ADHERENCE TO EXCEPTIONAL, INNOVATIVE
REPRESENTATION OF CLIENTS’ INTERESTS BY
ATTORNEYS, INVESTIGATORS, MITIGATION
SPECIALISTS, AND OTHER TEAM MEMBERS,
ALL WHILE OBSERVING FISCAL
RESPONSIBILITIES;

2.

PRESERVING THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
OF ALL CITIZENS WITH OUR DEDICATION TO
PROTECTING THE RIGHTS OF THE ACCUSED;

3.

ENHANCING THE CITIZENRY’S CONFIDENCE
IN OUR LEGAL SYSTEM BY CONSISTENTLY
DEMANDING JUST AND EQUITABLE
TREATMENT FOR ALL.

The team determined that the Client had been
abandoned by his biological mother, who later would
appear in his life for brief periods and horribly abuse
him. She repeatedly told him that he was unloved
and unwanted. She beat him with electrical cords
and was sexually promiscuous with multiple partners
in front of him. She forced him to lie after she
stabbed one of her lovers in front of Client A.
Shortly after Client A’s birth, his mother left him to
be raised by his maternal grandparents. His
grandfather was emotionally and physically abusive to
both him and his grandmother. The grandfather
constantly reminded Client A that he was unwanted
by his mother and a burden to the family. Our Client
was forced to leave the only "home" he had known
and to move to Phoenix to live with an uncle who
did not want him either. Soon after his arrival, our
Client was forced to leave this "home” also.
From school records and talking to his childhood
neighbors, the OLD defense team was able to
document that Client A suffered from significant
cognitive/intellectual impairment. Our Client’s IQ
fell just a few points above the "cutoff" for mental
retardation. The team obtained information about
his adaptive functioning that revealed marked
impairment. Additionally, the defense team was able
to demonstrate how Client A’s impairment impacted
his ability to solve problems, make decisions, and
understand the long-term consequences of his
decisions.
The OLD team’s work showed [1] how the Client’s
abuse and abandonment dramatically damaged his
psyche and unalterably influenced the choices he later
made, and [2] how his range of choices, behaviors,
and functioning were significantly curtailed by
biological, social, and psychological influences over
which he had no control. Finally, the defense team
demonstrated that our Client’s inability to problemsolve or "think on his feet" might have brought
about the chain of events that led to his standing
continued on page 4

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accused of two counts of capital murder.

GOALS
I.

DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE

REPRESENTATION FOR EACH CLIENT IN AN
ETHICAL FASHION THAT PROTECTS HIS OR HER
RIGHTS AND ENSURES EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER
THE LAW.

II.

PROVIDE THE COUNTY A COST-EFFECTIVE

The OLD defense team’s presentation to the
prosecutor led to saving our Client's life. Instead
of a death sentence, he received two 25-year,
consecutive sentences.
The case’s Capital Mitigation Specialist reflected
that these sentences allow the community to feel
safe but do not involve yet another damaged,
wounded human being put to death at the hands
of the state. The case’s conclusion leaves room for
healing to occur for both the victims’ families as
well as our Client.

METHOD OF REPRESENTATION FOR INDIGENT

≈y≈y≈

CLIENTS WHO WOULD OTHERWISE BE
REPRESENTED BY THE MARICOPA COUNTY

OFFICE OF THE PUBLIC DEFENDER, THE OFFICE
OF THE LEGAL ADVOCATE, OR THE OFFICE OF
CONTRACT COUNSEL.

III.

RETAIN AND DEVELOP ATTORNEYS AND

STAFF HIGHLY REGARDED FOR THEIR RESPECTIVE
SKILLS IN REPRESENTING, INVESTIGATING, OR
SUPPORTING THE DEFENSE OF ASSIGNED
CLIENTELE.

IV.

CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH

PROFESSIONALISM AND RESPECT FOR CLIENTS AND
FELLOW EMPLOYEES ARE INHERENT.

V.

ENDORSE MEASURES TO PROVIDE

EFFECTIVE ALTERNATIVES TO IMPRISONMENT AND
INCARCERATION.

VI.

MAINTAIN WORKLOADS THAT DO NOT
JEOPARDIZE ANY CLIENT’S DEFENSE.

Client N was 19 years old when he was
charged with attempted theft and
burglary of motor vehicle. When police
arrived on the scene, the Client was going
through a truck, looking for the keys and
asking passers-by to help locate them.
When police asked him what he was
doing, our Client insisted the truck was his
and that the people in a nearby
McDonald’s had hidden the keys from
him. The actual owner of the truck stated
that he did not know Client N and verified
his title to the vehicle. Our Client was
arrested.
When the OLD attorney first saw Client N,
he already was in the psychiatric ward of
the county jail. The Attorney found the
Client in his jail cell, naked and smeared
with feces. The facility’s nurses reported
that Client N engaged in compulsive
masturbation. No jail staff went into his 6’
x 10’ cell to clean, and the Client was left
by himself, locked down 24 hours a day
with rapidly accumulating feces and
rotten food.
Eventually, on the Legal Defender’s
continued on page 5

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motion, the court found Client N
incompetent and ordered him restored
to competency. Because of lack of
funds and space in the Arizona State
Hospital, our Client remained in the
same fetid jail conditions for
approximately six months. When he
finally was moved and medicated, he
quickly was restored to normalcy. After
Client N’s case was resolved, he
returned to his mother and family, who
had been concerned and supportive
throughout the process -- all anyone
wanted was some help.
By chance, the defense attorney ran
into Client N walking Downtown about
three years later. The Client was
married, had a young son, and was
working to support his family. He was
clean and happy, a productive member
of our community.

≈y≈y≈
Client C was charged with one count of capital
homicide and a count of attempted homicide.
He was accused of killing a woman (reportedly a
drug addict and prostitute) and shooting her
male acquaintance (also reportedly a drug user).
The female victim was the mother of three
children, one of whom was an 11-month-old
infant who was present in the home at the time
of the offense. Client C was addicted to
methamphetamine and had a lengthy history of
property and drug offenses, but not violent
crimes. Interviews with witnesses revealed that
our Client was sleep deprived and acutely
intoxicated during the week before the offenses.
Additionally, the victims had reported observing
him behaving in a bizarre and paranoid manner
days before the offenses.
OLD’s mitigation investigation found that
Client C essentially was born and raised to be a

drug addict. His mother and father both
suffered from drug addiction. During the
Client’s gestation, he was exposed to his
mother's use of marijuana on a daily basis. After
his birth, our Client was breast fed while his
mother used marijuana and heroin. When our
Client was still a small child, his father died of a
heroin overdose. Aside from Client C’s
exposure to drugs, he was raised in impoverished
conditions and moved frequently with his family
from rural community to rural community. He
witnessed his mother being physically abused by
his step-father. By the age of 5, Client C was
regularly smoking marijuana with his mother and
learning to cultivate the crop. In early
adolescence, he began using methamphetamine
and cocaine. He had easy access these drugs in
his home and community. At the age of 13,
Client C was sent to live with his former stepfather because his mother felt his behavior was
out of control. Client C was skipping school,
disappearing for days at a time with older
friends, and engaging in bizarre behaviors while
under the influence of drugs.
Records collected by OLD’s Client Services staff
found that Client C was placed in a psychiatric
facility in his 20's for being acutely psychotic
while under the influence of methamphetamine.
He was paranoid and delusional, believing evil
was residing within him. Throughout his
adulthood, Client C continued to exhibit
psychotic symptoms when under the influence
of drugs. His behavior consistently was
encouraged and reinforced by his family and a
drug-infested community.
The OLD’s defense team retained an addiction
expert who was able to observe Client C while
he was acutely intoxicated and psychotic in the
jail. After this assessment, the Client’s
competency to proceed with trial was
questioned. When the court ordered that our
Client be restored to competency, the defense
team litigated so that our Client would receive
mental health services in the state hospital where
he could be monitored 24 hours a day and be
continued on page 6

Office of the Legal Defender -- FY04 Report -- Page 5

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removed from an environment where drugs
were so easily accessible to him. The county's
restoration-to-competency program fought
having our Client placed at the state hospital.
The program wanted to provide services within
the jail, the same environment where he could
continue to access illegal drugs. Eventually, the
defense was successful in having Client C
committed to the state hospital.
After Client C was found restored to
competency, the OLD defense team provided
the state with an informational packet that
included mitigation interviews with supporting
documents and information from the addiction
expert. The state agreed to drop the death
penalty and our Client entered a guilt plea to the
offenses with sentencing to be determined by the
court. For the sentencing, the defense provided
the court with mitigation interviews, records, a
report by the addiction expert, and lay witnesses’
testimony of Client C’s life-long battle with
addiction. The court sentenced Client C to
natural life on the first charge, with a consecutive
sentence of 21 years on the second.
≈y≈y≈
Client P was charged with two counts of
capital homicide following the deaths of
two infant boys over a 10-month period.
The mothers of the children, girlfriends of
the Client, were charged with abuse.
An investigation of Client P's codefendants revealed that one of them
had an extensive history of aggression
and violence, and that the police
believed that the mother of one of the
infants may have been involved in the
child's death. A thorough collection of
records on Client P by OLD’s Client
Services staff revealed a wholly tragic
life. He was born to chemically
addicted parents and diagnosed in
early infancy as a "failure to thrive child."
He was neglected severely as an infant
and eventually was removed from his

mother's care, at which time he was
seriously ill and required a surgical
procedure to remove boils from his skin.
He was placed with a foster family
where he bonded with his foster
parents. Sadly, he was sexually abused
by a foster brother.
Despite early relinquishment of
parental rights by his parents, Client P
was not placed for adoption until he
was seven years old. At that time our
Client was removed from foster care,
the only family he had ever known,
and placed with an adopting family.
The adoption records reflect the new
family’s desire and fitness to adopt
Client P. An evaluation of the
adoption’s effect on the Client and
comments on his feelings about the
adoption were absent from the
records. By the age of eight he was
having difficulty in school and
manifesting behavioral problems.
Client P was diagnosed as learning
disabled and began treatment for
psychiatric disorders. From that point
on, throughout his childhood and
adolescence, the Client was almost
constantly institutionalized in
psychiatric facilities and youth
programs. He received numerous
mental health diagnoses and
medications. At times he suffered from
seizures and Lupus.
Client P continued to receive
psychiatric treatment from the
Department of Corrections and
community mental health services as
he became an adult and up to the
time of the offenses in this case. He
developed problems with substance
abuse, and attempted to selfmedicate the delusions and
hallucinations stemming from his
mental illness. As part of plea

Office of the Legal Defender -- FY04 Report -- Page 6

Select Clients
People are always
speculating:
why am I as I am? To
understand …
any person, his whole
life, from birth, must be
reviewed.
All our experiences fuse
into our personalities.
Everything that ever
happened to us is an
ingredient.

The Office of the Legal Defender clientele comes
only from assignments by the Superior Court of
Arizona. The Office is appointed to represent the
following individuals:
1. people charged with serious criminal
offenses, or parents in juvenile dependency /
juvenile severance actions,
AND
2. individuals who the court has determined
are unable to afford a private attorney.
™™™

OLD Members
The Office staff roster for
FY04 consisted of the
following:
Attorneys, Criminal Division
Full-time
32
Part-time
9
Attorneys, Juvenile Division
Full-time
14
Part-time
0
Support Staff, Criminal Div.
Full-time
36
Part-time
4
Support Staff, Juvenile Div.
Full-time
14
Part-time
1

In addition to serving our
Clients, the Office also believes
in helping in the development
of future participants in the
legal system, and so it maintains
its externship program through
the College of Law at Arizona
State University. The yearround program immerses law
students in actual casework,
giving students invaluable
benefit of hands-on legal
experience while the Office
gains legal research and
casework assistance. The
Office’s program has garnered a
favorable reputation at the Law
School and sees a regular flow
of applicants for the limited
number of externship positions.

This FY, three externs worked
with us. In the summer of
2003, Amber Abbas worked in
our Criminal Division under the
supervision of OLD attorneys
Richard Miller and Mark Tallen.
They then oversaw the work of
fall extern Kyrsten Sinema, and
2004 spring extern Melissa
Shaeffer.
™™™

“The law is equal
before all of us;
but we are not all
equal
before the law.”
George Bernard Shaw

Office of the Legal Defender -- FY04 Report -- Page 7

FY04 Budget
In FY04, the Maricopa County Board of
Supervisors provided the Office of the Legal
Defender the following funding:

FY03-04

CASES:
12
392
25
4,596
8
905

$4,304,877
$1,139,962
and
$ 467,485

for the Criminal Division,
for the Juvenile Division,
for the Admin/IT Division.

These monies served the county in the handling of
the following cases [Note: the categories listed for
these statistics parallel the county’s MfR standards
for the fiscal year].

739

Misdemeanor Assignments
Probation Violation Assignments
Witness Representation Assgnmnts.
Felony Assignments Other than
First Degree Murder
First Degree Murder Assignments
Parental Representation
Assignments [JD/JS/Grndshp]
Dependency Recertifications,

A standard review of the Office at the close of
FY04 found that the Office fulfilled the following:
; a respected law firm,
; a reputation for legal leadership,
; a fiscally responsible department, and
™™™
; a community asset.

Office of the Legal Defender
S. Briney
-Maricopa CountyLegal Defender
222 North Central Avenue
Suite 8100
Max Bessler
Phoenix, Arizona 85004-2237
Chief Administrator
602 506 8800

Dedicated to the Guardians of Freedom ~
wherever they are found.

Office of the Legal Defender -- FY04 Report -- Page 8

Robert