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| Court Reinstates Freed Inmate's Suit Against Clark County |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 03/05/2003 |
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A federal appeals court on February 3 reinstated a former death row inmate's civil rights lawsuit against Clark County, Nev., and its former public defender. In his suit, Roberto Miranda, who spent 14 years on Nevada's death row before being released in 1996, claims he received shoddy legal counsel from the public defender's office when it was run by Morgan Harris, who retired in 2001 after nearly three decades on the job. The lawsuit claims that a novice public defender handled his case and that the public defender's office had adopted policies dictating that it would minimally investigate and defend cases against minorities, those who did not belong to the Mormon church, and those who failed to perform well on 'unreliable' polygraph tests administered by the office. Harris' attorney, Thomas Beatty of Las Vegas, said he was considering whether to ask the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider its decision or appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. He said the allegations about the policies in the public defender's office were unfounded and have yet to be litigated. Miranda's attorney, J. Douglas McCalla, said 'those policies have been there as long as Morgan Harris has been public defender.' A jury sentenced Miranda to death in 1982 after finding him guilty of first-degree murder in the August 1981 stabbing death of Manuel Rodriguez Torres. According to the lawsuit, the public defender's office 'threw in the towel while Miranda sped towards his execution.' The lawsuit said Miranda is black and not Mormon. A year ago, the 9th Circuit sided with a Nevada federal judge who dismissed the lawsuit. But in reinstating the case Monday, the San Francisco-based appeals court ruled the county essentially 'mounted no defense' for Miranda. The court, however, ruled that Miranda's publicly appointed defense attorney, Thomas Rigsby, was immune from being sued. The case is Miranda v. Clark County, 00-15734. |
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