“The practical considerations are that in all likelihood, this case will not return to the trial court for a year or substantially longer,” federal Judge Geoffrey Crawford wrote in a recent filing.
Federal prosecutors had asked Crawford to continue to resolve other pretrial motions unrelated to the one on appeal to allow the case against Fell to continue to move forward. Fell’s attorney’s opposed that request by prosecutors.
Prosecutors last month appealed a ruling by Crawford regarding the admissibility of certain statements by an alleged accomplice of Fell who has since died.
Fell, 37, is facing the death penalty for his alleged role in the November 2000 abduction and slaying of Teresca King, 53, of North Clarendon.
Fell had been been convicted of capital crimes and sentenced to death. However, a judge tossed out that conviction and sentence after revelations of juror misconduct.
A retrial had been set for February, but was delayedd when Fell’s defense team asked for additional time. It was reset for September. Then, last month, prosecutors appealed Crawford’s ruling excluding certain statements from Robert Lee, Fell’s alleged accomplice, who died in prison in 2001.
The appeal is currently pending before the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City.
Crawford, in his recent filing, denied the request from the prosecutors to continue on with other matters in the case while that appeal remains pending.
“The district court has no desire to complicate the progress of the appeal,” Crawford wrote. “Motions which appear to be unrelated may well have some bearing on the issue on appeal. The trial court’s orders could trigger requests for additional briefing which may not be entirely helpful to the progress of the appeal.”
There are more than 20 other pretrial motions currently pending in the case awaiting decisions.
Prosecutors, in a filing, had cautioned that by not taking up unrelated motions while the appeal is pending more delays may be coming ahead.
“Given the extraordinary delays already present in this nearly 17-year-old case, the Court and the parties should make every effort to have a prompt retrial after decision by the Court of Appeals,” the filing stated. “Absent continuing work on unrelated matters, a prompt trial is unlikely.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney William Darrow, who is prosecuting Fell, has filed a motion in the appeals court seeking an “expedited” briefing and appeal process.
“Although the September 2017 trial date is no longer feasible, the government hopes that a trial beginning in late February or early March of 2018 is reasonable and possible,” he wrote in the filing “The people of Vermont and the family of Mrs. King will have waited over 17 years for justice by that point. Three government witnesses have died since the offenses. Avoiding unnecessary delay is imperative.”
Fell’s attorney’s filed a motion opposing an “expedited” process.
“The expedited briefing schedule and consideration sought by the government would unfairly prejudice (Fell) and unduly burden this Court, and would likely thwart, rather than facilitate, a clear and thoughtful resolution of the serious legal issues raised in this capital case,” the filing stated.
Darrow, reached Friday, declined comment. MIchael Burt, an attorney based in San Francisco, who is representing Fell, could not immediately be reached Friday for comment.
Fell and Lee, according to court records, were allegedly fleeing the slayings of Fell’s mother and her friend in Rutland when they carjacked King in a downtown supermarket’s parking lot in November 2000.
Vermont doesn’t have the death penalty. However, because King was beaten and killed in New York state after her abduction in Rutland, federal prosecutors took jurisdiction and are seeking the death penalty for Fell, court records state.
A tentative plea deal in October 2001 would have spared Fell the death penalty. The deal needed only the approval of then-U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft.
Ashcroft rejected the proposed agreement, which would have required Fell to plead guilty to a charge of kidnapping with death resulting in exchange for a lifetime jail sentence with no chance for parole.
Fell has been jailed since his arrest days after King’s death. He is currently being held in a detention facility in Brooklyn, New York.
The post Judge: New trial in Fell death penalty case may be delayed more than a year appeared first on VTDigger.