The following are sample motions to cover a variety of issues in a capital case.
Practitioner Resources
David Bruck has written a brief 7-page article, boiling down the ABA Guidelines.
The following pleadings are from a recent Maricopa County case, where defense counsel objected to the IQ prescreen of the defendant, prior to any social history investigation.
The ABA has issued an ethics opinion regarding defense counsel’s disclosure of privileged information to a prosecutor in response to a former client’s claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The ABA concludes that although an IAC claim “ordinarily waives the attorney-client privilege with regard to some otherwise privileged information…it is highly unlikely that a disclosure in response to a prosecution request, prior to a court-supervised response by way of testimony or otherwise, will be justifiable.”
Judge Gertner of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered defense counsel and prosecutors not to presume forensic evidence, including fingerprints and ballistics, would be admissible. The order relies heavily on the 2009 NAS report on forensic science.
The Death Penalty Information Center has conducted a survey of the availability of life without parole sentences in capital cases. This survey may be helpful in instructing a jury on a defendant’s possible sentences.
In 2007, defense counsel filed a motion to strike the death notice on the basis of the defendant’s complete lack of appointed counsel for several months after the indictment.
