Mara Leveritt reports on developments in the legal affairs of Death Row inmate Tim Howard, which I mentioned here earlier:
Tim Howard received a letter this morning dated yesterday from his federal public defenders informing him that they would be filing a motion today to withdraw from his case. They cited the article on my blog and the quotes it contained from Howard’s letter to Judge Brian Miller.
The letter said, “We are very sorry you no longer trust us to properly handle your case and that you feel we have violated the canon of professional ethics.” The letter included a copy of my article, which focused on their resistance to allowing Howard to engage an additional attorney, Patrick Benca, on his defense team.
The letter announcing the federal attorneys’ decision to withdraw informed Howard that they would work with Judge Miller to see that Howard was appointed an “experienced, qualified lawyer” in their place, and that they would make his “entire file available” to the new attorney—something they insisted they were not willing to do with Benca.
The letter, signed by Jenniffer Horan, Scott Braden, Josh Lee and Jennifer Molayem of the Arkansas Federal Public Defender Office, wished Howard “best of luck.”
Public defender seem a little spiteful?