Thursday, October 25, 2007
News Sabre-rattling from Richardson
Posted by Scott Henry @ScottTheHenry on Thu, Oct 25, 2007 at 8:58 PM
According to InsiderAdvantage, House Speaker Glenn Richardson is so hoppin' mad over the spiraling costs of Brian Nichols' legal defense that he plans to launch an investigation.
During a fundraiser at the Cobb Energy Center, Richardson announced to the crowd of something over 200 people that he’s appointed a special committee to look into the costs of the Nichols trial and the dollars that have been poured into it. It will be chaired by a trusted lieutenant, House Whip Barry Fleming.
Not a huge surprise there. GOP leaders have had their knickers in a wad over Nichols for weeks, including Sen. Eric Johnson, R-Savannah, as we blogged earlier.
In an update, IA scribe Dick Pettys writes that the speaker confirmed a rumor that had been circling within the ranks: that the committee would even consider impeachment proceedings against Fulton County Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller, who has ordered the state public defender's office to pony up more money for Nichols' defense team.
Certainly, he picked the right man for the job in Barry "Combover" Fleming, a civil litigator who spends much of his time defending insurance companies from workers' comp claims and has little use for criminal due process -- especially when it comes to death-penalty cases. Last session, he floated a bill to allow convicted murderers to be executed even if three jury members disagreed.
Of interest is Peach Pundit's refreshingly clear-eyed and well-informed take on the situation, which argues that the current mess is as much prosecutors' fault as it is that of the judge or defense attorneys.
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