JUDGE ORDERS CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY NOT TO SPEAK IN DEATH PENALTY TRIAL
Man on trial for his life in Berkeley
By Robert Behre, The Post and Courier, September 22, 2009
MONCKS CORNER -- As opening arguments began Monday in the death penalty trial of Colin Broughton, defense attorney Bill McGuire said he agreed with much of what the prosecution has asserted in court….
If the jury convicts Broughton, 25, of murdering his aunt, Shirley Mae Birch, a second phase of the trial will begin, and jurors will decide if Broughton should serve a sentence of life in prison or be put to death.
Any death sentence would be appealed, and recent behind-the-scenes maneuvering in the case has raised the question of whether this death sentence would hold up.
Before the trial began, a judge told one of Broughton's three attorneys, Charleston County public defender Beattie Butler, that he may not speak in court unless a judge questions him….
Rauch Wise, a Greenwood lawyer on the board of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said the order banning Butler from speaking could be fertile ground for an appeal, particularly because the order didn't come in response to any disruptive behavior by Butler in the case.
"I just think it goes against American tradition to tell a defendant that you can't be heard by competent counsel who is there to defend you in the courtroom," Wise said. "It just simply makes no sense."…
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/sep/22/man-on-trial-for-his-life-in-berkeley/
