By Jeff Arnold
Stephens Media
FORT SMITH — The lead attorney for death-row inmate Ricky Dale Newman will be allowed to continue representing Newman in federal court in Arkansas despite moving to Delaware in September, a federal judge has ruled.
The order Tuesday overruled the state Supreme Court’s refusal to grant Federal Public Defender Julie Brain’s request to remain Newman’s lead counsel.
Brain has represented Newman on appeal since 2004, two years after he was sentenced to death in Crawford County Circuit Court in 2002 for the 2001 mutilation and murder of 46-year-old Marie Cholette at a transient camp in Van Buren.
Brain resigned from the Federal Public Defender Office in Arkansas, effective Sept. 11, to take a job with the Federal Public Defender Office in Delaware.
Before departing for Delaware, Brain filed motions before the Arkansas Supreme Court and U.S. District Court, asking that she be allowed to remain Newman’s lead counsel.
In both motions, Brain argued she should be allowed to remain as Newman’s counsel because she is familiar with all aspects of his case and has built a trusting relationship with Newman, “who suffers from a debilitating combination of mental disorders that significantly impairs his functioning.”
The state supreme court denied Brain’s motion without comment Oct. 1.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert T. Dawson granted Brain’s motion in federal court. His order acknowledges the state’s opposition.
Brain could not be reached for comment and no motion to withdraw had been filed with the Arkansas Supreme Court by Thursday afternoon.
In his order granting Brain’s motion, Dawson noted that federal public defenders in Arkansas and Delaware support Brain continuing as counsel and appropriate approval was sought and granted through the Administrative Office of the United States Courts.
“The court is aware of Ms. Brain’s long representation of the petitioner, and finds that the interests of justice would best be served for her to remain as petitioner’s counsel,” Dawson wrote.
Although Newman has an appeal pending in U.S. District Court, Dawson stayed those proceedings in March and ordered Newman to exhaust his appeals at the state court level.
