"The defense team did not [demonstrate] a good-faith effort to prepare the case for trial in a timely fashion, let alone in any meaningful fashion at all," Ryan wrote, adding that attorneys Joseph Stazzone and Gary Bevilacqua "demonstrated a purposeful refusal to work the case and meet court deadlines, holding the courts, the prosecutor, victim's counsel and the victim's next of kin hostage because they did not get their way."

(The pair had at least three other death-penalty cases in various stages of disposition at the time and certainly never should have taken on Jeff Martinson as a client.)

Jeff Martinson's indigency didn't stop his attorneys from making enough public money to afford a Bentley and an office building.
pool photo by Darryl Webb/Ahwatukee Foothills News
Jeff Martinson's indigency didn't stop his attorneys from making enough public money to afford a Bentley and an office building.
Andy Thomas' tough-on-crime posture was hugely expensive for taxpayers, plus ineffective.
Social Eye Media
Andy Thomas' tough-on-crime posture was hugely expensive for taxpayers, plus ineffective.

Remember, Ryan's broadside against the defense came from a judge targeted almost on a daily basis by County Attorney Thomas or his minions. (Later in 2009, Thomas and political ally Sheriff Joe Arpaio moved it up a notch, infamously going after Ryan's direct supervisor, then-presiding criminal court Judge Gary Donahoe on unsubstantiated and quickly abandoned felony "bribery" and "corruption" charges.)

"We were in a very tough spot at that time," says Ryan, who now works in a far less publicly visible Family Court assignment.

"We had more death-penalty cases on our plate than any jurisdiction in the nation, [such] that we didn't have enough prosecutors, judges, or qualified defense attorneys to keep things moving along at a rate that anyone could define as satisfactory."

Things got so bad in Arizona's largest county that the Arizona Supreme Court convened a "Capital Case Task Force" to try to help matters. (Minutes of the committee's first meeting, in early 2007, show that, interestingly, among those in attendance were Kris Eberle — mother of Josh Eberle-Martinson, the child who died on his father Jeff's watch — and Martinson's future defense attorney Treasure Van Dreumel.)

But not much could be done with Maricopa County's backlog and overload of death-penalty cases while Andy Thomas remained at the helm.

Thomas prided himself on his reputation as "Mr. Death Penalty."

Though capital punishment is supposed to be reserved for the "worst of the worst" criminals, dozens of new Maricopa County murder defendants faced possible death sentences each year, an all-time high.

In 2007, Thomas sought death in almost every other potential first-degree murder case that landed in his office. That was more, as Ryan suggests, than any other county in the United States.

Maricopa County then had almost 150 pending death-penalty cases. By contrast, Pima County — with about one-quarter of Maricopa's population (which was almost 4 million at the time) — had just nine pending cases.

Even more graphic, Los Angeles County, with a population of almost 10 million, had but 36 pending capital cases at the end of 2007.

All but a few of the 2007 would-be death-penalty cases brought by Thomas' office ended in guilty plea bargains to reduced charges — many resulting in life sentences and many others in pleas to less-serious crimes.

In one fairly typical case from that era, Maricopa County prosecutors sought death against David Szymanski in a DUI vehicular manslaughter, only the second time in the nation's history that's happened.

Szymanski did the unthinkable: He killed a man while driving drunk in the wrong direction on Loop 101 in Scottsdale.

Though there was a flurry of publicity and talk-radio ranting, was that a capital crime?

Many months and tens of thousands of dollars in court expense later, the death-penalty case fell apart. Szymanski eventually pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Thomas' successor, Bill Montgomery, is not at all averse to seeking a death sentence when it seems appropriate. But the County Attorney's Office is far more rational these days about capital filings than during the Thomas years.

As of a few weeks ago, Maricopa County still had 71 death-penalty cases awaiting disposition, half of what it had four years ago.

Those who probably were unhappiest when Andy Thomas resigned as County Attorney in April 2010 to make an unsuccessful run for Arizona Attorney General weren't the people who worked for him.

They had to be members of the criminal-defense bar, especially those (and not just Jeff Martinson's trial lawyers) who struck the mother lode during Thomas' death penalty-laden and historically divisive five years in office.

Here and elsewhere, the vast majority of homicide defendants are poor, and court-appointed attorneys are assigned to represent them.

In Maricopa County, three public-defender agencies handle most, but not all, indigent murder defendants.

For myriad reasons — most often legal "conflicts of interest" after more than one person is charged in a case — judges may have to appoint private attorneys to represent one or more defendants.

Though it is time-consuming, complex, and stressful, death-penalty defense has proved to be lucrative for those private attorneys who contract with the county to represent clients.

New Times analyzed Maricopa County's capital-case payouts to every private criminal-defense attorney since 2005, the year Andy Thomas assumed office.

Other than the Martinson attorneys, some of the truly big winners in death-penalty cases included:

Randy Craig, who collected more than $1.3 million for his representation in separate cases of current death-row inmates Mark Goudeau and Donald Delahanty, as well as $279,000 in another case.

Roderick Carter, who billed the county $768,000 as Craig's "second chair" in the Goudeau case alone. (The defense in that serial-murder case rested without calling any witnesses at trial.) Carter also has collected almost $800,000 in other death cases since 2006.

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14 comments
Truth in Media...
Truth in Media...

Come on!!! Mr. Rubin are you laying all this on the DEFENSE attorneys in Martinson? Why didn't you detail, for comparison and fairness, what the county paid and continues to pay for Thomas' and Arpaio's MISDEEDS in OFFICE?!?!?!? VanDreumel and Terribile didn't seek out the Martinson case - they were asked to take it. And what you also failed to print is the fact that BOTH these attorneys had lucrative practices before Martinson. One of the conditions of taking Martinson was that they would basically have to forego any other work. And given that what they got paid is LESS than what the county pays for Thomas and co and Arpiao's attorneys, let alone the fact that their lawyers aren't shutting down all other business to take these cases, your story smacks on bias. It appears your story is a hachet job on a convenient target - defense attorneys. I guess seeking justice in a death case does have a cost ceiling.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Are you reading-impaired, or just stupid. New Times has reported incessently about what the county has paid for Thomas and Arpaio's bullshit! This doesn't mean it can't also report that a lawyer makes so much money off the public that she can buy a fucking Bentley, and her partner a God-damn office building! Get your fucking head our of your dumb ass.

Truth in Media
Truth in Media

Get your fucking head out of your own ass dog fucker. What Was asked was a side. Y side. Omparison in THIS story you stupid shit for brains idiot. And you got a problem. Ecause lawyers make money doing what is require of them in defending a man accused of such a serious charge and facing the ultimate punishment? Get. Sck in your run down crackhead hood trailer loser and quit the jealousy over other folks' success. You stupid fuck.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Man, you have lost it! Make a lot of assumptions, do you? Hope you find more facts to work with in your law practice. Sheesh, why don't you put your name on your rantings? Well, because nobody would ever retain a hothead, lamebrain like you again. Oh, and I saw everything involved in this. That's why I'm laughing at you, as are most of the lawyers in town. Heh, you should zip up that stupid trap of yours. Somebody might figure out that you're a principal in the case. Just saying...

Truth in Media
Truth in Media

HaHAHa trust me dip-shit - last thing you want is me near you on a bar stool (which is probably exactly where you spend your unemployed ass). You're an idiot. Funny how losers like you "hate" lawyers,,,that is until you NEED a lawyer (sorry your ex had a better lawyer and she and her new beau cleaned you out...) And when losers like you need a lawyer, you want the BEST, Nastiest, Hard fighting lawyer you can afford or get appointed (Luckily Mr.Martinson got just that). So you see, loser, you're fool and a joke. As for Mr. Rubin's story ending big paydays, not likely dumbs - the "going standard rate" is $125.00 an hour. Figure in the fact that most capital cases take over two years to prepare for trial, and, well, even with your welfare income, you should be able to do that math. As for your bullshit claim that the Martinson case was not "worth" a million "bucks", enlighten us all how you come to that conclusion... have you seen the billings, the work, the trial, the total hours involved? ANYTHING to justify your claim? Nope - you're just another loser with a big mouth spouting off about shit you know nothing about. Sorry Law School was just a far-away pipe dream for you and the bar stool works out better for you. As for the public defender's office, aren't you forgetting that in addition to the 100K income, there's all those holidays, med and dental insurance, life insurance, retirement, law school loan repayment, etc. HAHAHA not a bad gig rather, right Loser!!! Way to embarrass yourself AGAIN. Inclosing, let me reiterate (that means say again...) - sorry your ex and her beau had a better lawyer and left you broke which is the REAL reason you hate lawyers.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Right-wing loser? Hardly. I voted for Obama, but he's not liberal enough for me. Heh, you're just making a bigger fool of yourself with every post, lawyer fucktard. Doubt you'd be talking so tough if we were sitting next to each other on a bar stool. I smell a pussy. Oh, I see the issues just fine. Love it the way you look down on the very people who employ you, the folks you "use" as a means to suck money out of taxpayers (among other things you suck stuff from). As if making minimum wage is a sin, and only "smart" guys like you lawyers deserve to make bank. Your hatred of the poor you represent is classic! Oh, I know, nobody's intelligent enough to know what you mouthpieces go through, having to get your expensive duits dirtied up defending "low-lifes." Boo, hoo. Face it, everytody hates you blood-sucking scum. Nobody's asking you defense-lawyer creeps to work for free, but there's no way you deserve a million bucks apiece on a case like Martinson, and you fucking know it! Oh yeah, it was a used Bentley. It was an office building in foreclosure. Two of your earlier clueless points. I'm afraid, thanks to Rubin, your big paydays may be coming to a close, which is what you're so burned-up insane about, right. The Bentley train is getting derailed. Maybe you'll have to go to work in the public defender's office, and make just $100,000 a year. How sad for you.

Truth in Media
Truth in Media

Ahh, Dog Fucker, note how you're the only one here arguing against lawyers and especially lawyers making good money - on the public dime. As for coherent posts, read your own posts, dog fucker, you make no sense at all other than to reveal that you're nothing more than a myopic, homunculus little twit of a "man" who is also homophobic. So, let's see, what lawyers are on the public dime -- Prosecutors, Government agency counsel, etc. Why are you not complaining about what Thomas', Aubuchon, Alexander and Arpaio's lawyers are getting paid? Why are you not complaining about the huge costs of death penalty cases especially when ALL studies show it to be completely worthless in crime prevention and deterrence?

You see Dog Fucker, you can't see the REAL issues involved in this story, because you are so blinded by your own minimum wage salary (oh, I know, you'll post back how "rich" you are, own your own company, etc.... sure ya do, DF, suuuuure ya do) that you have to attack the least important aspect of this story - how good lawyers, who are doing a good job, privately spend their own earned income...which isn't ANY OF OUR BUSINESS (Sad Mr. Rubin got side-tracked on this point, but got to sell stories lest he don't get paid...)

Sorry your pathetic life is so bad you have to be so jealous of these two lawyers who (1) got asked to take the case, (2) took it with the understanding they would forego other work, (3) took it at an AGREED UPON contractual price, (4) did, and are doing, what real lawyers do - fight for their client, (5) and have done a great job of it so far. It's only homophobic little right-wing losers like you that would expect these lawyers to sacrifice their own lives for free to defend a man accused of murder and facing the death penalty. So, take your loser ass, go find that dog you like to "bite" and saddle up to other homophobic ass clowns like yourself, and let real people debate what the real issue is in this story.

Dogbiter
Dogbiter

Lamebrain lawyer asshole, it's probably worthless to respond to you. Yo have probably died from a stroke. You're so upset that you can't even write a coherent thought. Um, you ever heard the one with the punchline: it's a good start? Sorry, but lawyers like you don't deserve to get rich on the public dime. Go fuck yourself! And keep up the good work, New Times. As usual, you the stuck pigs are squealing like little faggots.

teknik1200
teknik1200

oh wow, time to get back on those meds, bro.

ExpertShot
ExpertShot

Dude - it was a used Bentley and the office building was a wreck and under foreclosure - I guess you didn't get the whole point of the story - the death penalty SUCKS!!!

Paul Rubin
Paul Rubin

My advice to both of you nitwits is to stop reading new times story's..

 
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