Surely this is an aberration!

From the 2/21/07 Sacramento, Ca. BEE:

A defense investigator who specialized in death penalty cases is expected to be charged Wednesday in Sacramento Superior Court with perjury and 22 counts each of forgery and counterfeiting signatures, court documents say.
Kathleen Culhane, 40, of Petaluma, is suspected of falsifying documents in five death-penalty cases, including that of Michael Morales, a man whose execution was stayed last year for unrelated reasons, her attorney, Stuart Hanlon, said.
A warrant was issued Friday for Culhane's arrest and she turned herself in at the Sacramento Main Jail on Monday evening.
Hanlon said Culhane has dedicated the latter part of her career to opposing the death penalty, working most recently for the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, which is a state agency that provides representation for death-row inmates.
Suspicions about Culhane's work arose a year ago, when attorneys appealing to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for clemency for Morales - who had been convicted of a 1981 rape and murder of a Lodi woman - withdrew statements taken by Culhane.
In the statements, jurors expressed regret about the death penalty verdict they reached in the case.

(you know the rest ...)

The latest installment in the "let's help the poor, misunderstood rapists/murderers of California"

From the Sacramento BEE 2/22/07; please notice how this is all justified by the actions of the prosecutors!

Kathleen Culhane watches from behind bars during her arraignment Wednesday at the Sacramento County jail courtroom on charges of perjury, forgery and counterfeiting documents. Her bail was reduced, and her attorney said she would be bailed out of jail immediately.
The defense investigator fabricated dozens of statements from jurors and others in her quest to overturn death penalty sentences, lawyers for the attorney general's office said Wednesday.
Kathleen Culhane, 40, of Petaluma was arraigned Wednesday on 45 felony counts of perjury, forgery and counterfeiting documents in front of Sacramento Superior Court Judge David Abbott.
"This could make people lose faith in the justice system," Michael Farrell, senior assistant attorney general, said after Culhane's arraignment. "She undermined the system."


Farrell said the 23 false declarations submitted by Culhane in four death-penalty cases have been removed from the cases and only had the effect of drawing out the already-long appeal process. Culhane faces a maximum of 18 years and 8 months in prison.

Culhane's work came into question a year ago when attorneys for Michael Morales filed last-minute documents -- that Culhane had prepared -- saying five jurors regretted their decision to condemn Morales to death for the 1981 killing of Terri Winchell. The documents had been sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegger in a bid for clemency that was later denied.

Farrell said his office and the San Joaquin District Attorney's Office began to call the jurors who reportedly had changes of heart. Prosecutors learned that the five jurors and one witness had not made new statements or ever met Culhane.

"This is about someone who decided to do what she wanted and run around the system," Farrell said.

Culhane worked on the Morales case for Los Angeles attorney David Senior and Kenneth Starr -- the attorney who investigated former President Bill Clinton's relationship with Monica Lewinsky. Farrell said he has seen no indications that the defense attorneys knew about Culhane's alleged forgery.

Culhane's attorney, Stuart Hanlon of San Francisco, argued Wednesday for Culhane's bail to be reduced from $115,000.

"She is a person who dedicated her life to helping people, and with that, fighting the death penalty," Hanlon said.

Culhane worked on human rights causes for seven years in El Salvador, from the time she was 19 to 26, according to a document filed seeking the bail reduction.

She married a Doctors Without Borders volunteer in 1988. In 1992, he was arrested in a student protest and killed in an El Salvador jail, the document says.

Culhane began work as a defense investigator in death penalty cases in 1999 at the California Appellate Project. From 2001 to 2005 she worked for the Habeas Corpus Resource Center, which is a state agency that defends inmates facing capital punishment.

"She is a proverbial cheerleader for a more respectable, just society," says a letter by one of Culhane's friends, which was submitted to Judge Abbott Wednesday.

Abbott reduced Culhane's bail to $50,000. Hanlon said she would be bailed out of the Sacramento County jail immediately.

Culhane first made headlines in February 2006, when her work on the Morales case came into question.

Farrell said prosecutors' suspicions were aroused by the last-minute nature of the filings, so they called some of the jurors who supposedly had changed their minds about the case.

All five said they had not changed their minds, several noting that their names were misspelled on documents they supposedly signed.

"I am extremely upset and outraged by the forged declaration," one juror said, according to court documents.

In addition to five allegedly forged juror statements, Culhane faces charges of making up a witness statement saying testimony offered in the trial was false.

To bolster that turnaround, Culhane submitted a declaration of her own, chastising prosecutors for perverting justice.

"The prosecuting officials persist in their shameful efforts to coerce false testimony and suppress favorable evidence," Culhane wrote.

For that declaration, Culhane was charged with one count of perjury.

The remaining 22 counts of forgery and 22 counts of counterfeiting a document relate to statements taken in the Morales case and those of:

� Vicente Figueroa Benavides, convicted in Kern County of a 1991 rape and murder of a child.

� Christian Monterroso, convicted in Orange County of a 1991 double homicide.

� Jose Guerra, convicted in Los Angeles County on a 1990 rape and murder.

In addition to those cases, the Habeas Corpus Resource Center withdrew about 75 statements that Culhane had taken.

... guess which state will soon propose creating a new habeas corpus resource center of it's own? That's right, you're standing in it. I'm sure THAT will solve everyone's problems ....

(another sign of things to come if the state gov't gets involved in direct representation of defendants?)

Nichols trial delayed over funding

By RHONDA COOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 02/22/07

Just days before prospective jurors were to report to the Fulton County Courthouse, Judge Hilton Fuller on Thursday postponed the Brian Nichols death penalty trial for a month in hopes that funding problems can be overcome.

Fuller set a new trial date of March 27 to allow Georgia legislators time to decide whether to give additional money to the cash-strapped state agency that is paying for Nichols' defense.

But lawmakers say that may not be enough time.

"I can't promise it is going to get done by then," said Rep. Ben Harbin (R-Evans), chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee. "It would be difficult to meet that deadline, even in a good year."

The first group of 30 prospective jurors was set to report to the courthouse for individual questioning � called voir dire � on Monday. Defending Nichols has already cost taxpayers more than $1.2 million. His three private attorneys are billing the state a combined $395 an hour for a trial expected to last five months.

The mounting cost of Nichols' defense has sparked complaints at the state Capitol and compounded a budget crisis at the state's new public defender system. Officials at the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council, which pays for the defense of indigents statewide, say the system is running out of money and must trim the fees it pays defense attorneys in other death penalty cases across Georgia.

The Nichols case has cost more than the other death penalty cases in part because the judge granted Nichols four lawyers, double the number that state law requires, to defend him against 54 felony counts, an extraordinarily large number of charges.

In his order appointing the four lawyers, Fuller also commented on the high level of public interest in the trial because of where the sensational crime occurred � the Fulton courthouse � and who the victims were � a judge, a deputy, a court worker and a federal agent.

Nichols was in custody and on trial for rape in March 2005 when he allegedly escaped and burst into a courtroom, fatally shooting Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes and his court reporter. He allegedly then shot and killed sheriff's deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley as he fled the building and killed a customs agent later that day.

The public defender council is hoping for an extra

$9.59 million when legislators revise the 2007 state budget later this year. If the money is approved by the Legislature, Gov. Sonny Perdue still must sign the measure into law before the money can be spent.

Neither may happen before March 27. In fact, lawmakers say the current legislative session may run into April, and budgets are generally among the last bills approved.

Fuller, speaking from the bench, said he has tried unsuccessfully several times to push legislators to move more quickly.

And on Thursday a clearly frustrated judge said, "it is not my responsibility to provide for funding."

But Fuller said he is responsible for ensuring Nichols gets an adequate defense.

"I am not going to preside over a trial I believe is constitutionally infirmed just to get it over with. Every day that we're down increases the ultimate cost of this case," Fuller said.

The first public mention of a possible delay came several weeks ago after Fuller approved the defense team's request for funds for an expert to help the lawyers decide if they would employ a mental health defense. The public defender council balked at spending that money and has appealed Fuller's ruling.

This week prosecutors joined the defense in voicing their concerns about starting voir dire next week with the question of funding unresolved.

The problems for the indigent defense system at the Statehouse are both political and financial.

Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has criticized the council, saying it overspent its budget and then tried to blame the state for not providing enough money. Smith also chairs the Senate budget subcommittee considering the request for increased funding.

Smith, an attorney, said Thursday the Nichols defense is not short of money. He said "4,000 hours of lawyers' time, four attorneys and $1.2 million ought to get you a long way toward trial," he said. "That doesn't sound like a scarcity of money is the real issue."

Getting Smith's agreement is one problem. Another potential stumbling block is an unrelated budget matter: a shortfall for PeachCare, the government health insurance program for children of working poor Georgians.

Lawmakers fear PeachCare will run out of money sometime in March without additional federal funding. The program provides health insurance to 273,000 children, and saving PeachCare has been a top priority for legislators.

The midyear budget adjustment, which could get more money to PeachCare and indigent defense, is essentially on hold at the Statehouse. Harbin said lawmakers are hoping a mid-March vote in Congress will provide Georgia the money needed to fund PeachCare. Then legislators can finish work on the budget and send it on to Perdue for his signature. The governor didn't sign the midyear budget last year until May 8.

"We can't make commitments until we know we can fund health care for children," Smith said. "We have to prioritize, and obviously children's health care weighs pretty heavily on our mind."


Find this article at:
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/02/22/0223metnichols.html

We prosecutors would LOVE to have the kind of budget the Nichols defense is getting. It is so frustrating to have the general public actually believe that we have all the resources at our disposal and the defense has nothing. If we don't do every single CSI test created on TV, even if it's for budgetary reasons, we're screwed. But by God, we'd better not screw a defendant out of a continuance because $1.2 million just isn't enough to defend him.