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Phillips’ appeal date set
Convicted murderer’s lawyers to argue jury was biased
Published Friday, April 17, 2009
The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals will hear oral arguments Tuesday in Bobby O’Lee Phillips’ appeal of his 2007 murder conviction.
A Covington County jury found Phillips guilty in the 2002 death of Gantt resident Paul LeMaster. Phillips, whose trial lasted three weeks, was sentenced to death. His trial, held in March 2007, followed by a few months the trial of Oscar Roy Doster, who also was found guilty in LeMaster’s death. Both men were escaped from the Covington County Jail when LeMaster was killed and both were sentenced to death.
David Baker, who along with Manish Patel was appointed by the court to represent Phillips, said one of the strongest arguments in the appeal is venue.
Phillips was charged with and found guilty of 19 crimes, including three counts of capital murder. The charges were based on evidence that Doster and Smith, after escaping from jail, broke into a mobile home near LeMaster’s travel trailer in Gantt. From the first home, the two men were accused of stealing weapons, which prosecutors said they used to kill LeMaster before stealing his vehicle and other items.
“Doster pled guilty to all counts except capital murder and used as his defense, ‘I wasn’t the trigger man, Phillips was,’” Baker said. “While they were escaped, Covington County was almost in a hostage situation when word leaked out that the two of them might have something to do with (LeMaster’s) murder.
“Every juror had heard about it,” Baker said.
Baker said every American is guaranteed an impartial trial.
“Appeals are about technical, legal procedures,” Baker said. “We have a number of issues, but the strongest one is the venue of the original trial.”
In most cases, the Court of Criminal Appeals rules after reading briefs on a case, he said. It is unusual for them to hear oral arguments in a case like this one.
Baker and Patel will present their arguments at 9:30 a.m. in Montgomery. The Appeals court can send the case back to the circuit court to be retried or they can uphold the case. If it is upheld, the case will be appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. The Supreme Court also could send the case back to circuit court or deny the appeal.
“If that happened, at that point his sentence is final,” Baker said.
Comments
Posted by SouthernAttitude1 (anonymous) on April 18, 2009 at 8:19 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Appeal??? Are these people crazy? The trial should have been right where the crimes were committed. A jury of his peers ..... local citizens who were affected. I say send him to the electric chair and do it quickly. No sense in wasting more dollars on that piece of scum. Did Mr. LeMasters get a change of venue? Did Mr. LeMasters get a chance to live another day? No!! Thanks to the scum who now want the world to give him another chance. Fry Baby Fry!
Posted by patwilliam (anonymous) on April 18, 2009 at 9:31 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Absolutely ridiculous that he should even be afforded the opportunity of an appeal. The system really is not fair to the victims in crimes of this nature. Kill someone, it's okay, cause hey, you'll be afforded appeal after appeal. Yes, it's true that people hear the news. Soooo...What of it? Send this jerk to the electric chair and don't allow any more appeals!
Posted by sayitaintso (anonymous) on April 18, 2009 at 3:23 p.m. (Suggest removal)
the appointed won't get him off! it takes years of experience to spring a guy with crimes of this nature. there is maybe two(2) attorneys in covington county that could argue this case and their not on the roster!
Posted by Mel (anonymous) on April 18, 2009 at 3:41 p.m. (Suggest removal)
He's totally guilty, why waste more of our money? How many more years are we going have to feed and clothe this person? Let me see, he was in the Cov. Co jail for what? Oh, he did a crime. Then he escaped, as far as I'm concerned, that was his 2nd chance. He forfieted his appeals the day he and doster thought they had reason to escape. The murder victims had no appeal. Let the victims' families pronounce the final, no appeal, verdict.
Pray for our local, state, and national gov't. We need God back in all three. Thanks
Posted by Beanstalk (anonymous) on April 18, 2009 at 5:03 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let me see if I got this right, These guys escape, a state wide man hut is started, They commit the most horrendous crime the county has heard of in decades, and national as well as local news coverage. "VENUE" Please this is so unreal... Geeeeeezzz The lawyers find VENUE as a reason they should get a new trial? The people that live here and knew both the victim and the killers have more rights than anyone to sit on the case and listen to the evidence presented. Who better to sit on a jury as peers to these guys? They were found guilty; The system automatically sets an appeal in place on a case like this. But please use REAL FACTUAL reasons for appeal, don't use "If the shoe fits wear it" type appeals. Patel, Baker you guys are doing your job as the system sets forth, But the system in this case is bogus in my opinion. LaMasters was cooking a hamburger for Christ sake on the stove when this guy thought it would be cool to kill him from across the way with a stolen rifle in a trial they broke into and ransacked drank and got bored and killed an innocent man that just came home from work and was cooking his meal. No Phillips you had your trial. LaMasters was never afforded the chance to even plead for his life. Cold Blooded Murder! Yup VENUE get him off boys turn him loose back onto our community. Oh and shame on this Newspaper for allowing this blog to be open for comments so it can be used as a tool for Baker and Patel to use to get this guy off. THESE TYPE of stories need to be BLOCKED from public comment as to not hamper the case ether way! But the Pay Per Hits for people posting and reading these post is more important than the safety of our community!
Posted by KS (anonymous) on April 18, 2009 at 10:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I understand that the attorney's are doing there job; however that's the problem with our system. Our legal system is seriously flawed when we even give a thought to giveing Phillips an appeal. It should not matter if if the jury was bias or not if their guilty. Doster and Phillips not only committed crimes to be in the jail to start with they escaped and murdered not one person and stole their trucks but 2 people (the retire Texas Ranger). Did they give their victims an appeal? Our system will not get any better until we get the bleeding heart liberals out of our legal system.
Posted by justice (anonymous) on April 19, 2009 at 10:33 a.m. (Suggest removal)
yes you are so right the paper use's it to help there "buddy's " win case's and maybe even get a kick back.The star news is always willing to slander someone's name guilty till proven inocent ,but if they are found inocent they never report that. but back on this issue i agree every one from here tio california knows abotu this case venue is just a way lawyers try and get someone set free. fry,,baby fry.
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