And the Beat Goes On - Part II

On Thursday, the Ohio Supreme Court turned down Marvallous Keene's request for a stay of his execution date so that his attorneys would have time or resources to prepare for clemency proceedings. One reason Keene's attorneys said they didn't have time or resources to prepare was that they were also busy working on John Fautenberry's clemency petition. I wrote about all that, and related matters, here.

That was then. Yesterday, which you'll note was the next day, Fautenberry asked for a stay of his execution because his lawyer needs time and resources to prepare for clemency. I know it looks bad, like they're gaming the system. They're not.

The public defender was doing the clemency for both Fautenberry and Keene because there was nobody else to do it. Fautenberry's habeas counsel, you see, a private lawyer in private practice had been trying to get authorization and resources from the federal court since April when SCOTUS decided that the Sixth Circuit was wrong and that federal law did authorize federal courts to provide counsel and resources for clemency proceedings. But the federal court hasn't acted.

So OPD really was doing it all. And private counsel, better positioned except for that business about having to make enough to pay the electric bill and still advocate competently and passionately and hire experts from around the country, is stuck. Fautenberry needs that stay.