By Rob Moritz
Arkansas News Bureau

LITTLE ROCK — A legislative panel endorsed a proposal today that would prevent the state from paying the legal fees of lawyers hired by criminal defendants.

The amendment was proposed in response to a recent circuit judge’s ruling that ordered the state to pay the legal bills of Abdulhakim Muhammad, accused of shooting one soldier to death and wounding another at a west Little Rock recruiting center.

The Arkansas Public Defender Commission has appealed the Pulaski County circuit judge’s ruling to the state Supreme Court.

The amendment to the Arkansas Public Defender Commission budget not affect Muhammad, said the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Jim Luker, D-Wynne.

Muhammad’s family hired an attorney, who then billed the state, Luker said.

“This language would … limit the court’s ability to order the payment out of the network defense,” he said.

The Public Defender Commission is a state agency that provides legal services to the indigent.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright in January ordered the commission to pay Muhammad’s legal expenses because he is too poor to pay the cost of defending himself.

Muhammad has been charged with capital murder, attempted capital murder and unlawful discharge of a weapon in the shooting death of Army Pvt. William Long of Conway and wounding of Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville. The shootings occurred June 1 as the two stood outside the Army-Navy Career Center in west Little Rock.

Muhammad has claimed the shootings were justified because of U.S. military actions in the Middle East.