 The two brothers are being charged with the 2009 murders of five
members of the Raymond Gee family of Beason. The two are each facing
a long list of charges ranging from multiple counts of murder to
criminal sexual assault, home invasion and robbery. In this case,
attorneys have been dealing with over 12,000 pages of written
discovery and mounds of physical and forensic evidence.
At their last hearing in October, Judge Harris ordered the
attorneys for the prosecution and defenses to meet together outside
the courtroom and devise a manner of streamlining all the materials
that have been collected.
With Christopher Harris being the first to appear on Thursday
morning, the judge asked if the attorneys had done their
assignment.
Speaking on behalf of the prosecution, Illinois Assistant
Attorney General Michael Atterberry confirmed that the group had met
in Springfield on Dec. 9 and had made considerable progress in
streamlining the evidence. Atterberry said the attorneys had spent
several hours together working though organizing the massive pages
of discovery plus over 300 CDs of additional information.
Harris asked if any indexing of the evidence had been completed,
and Atterberry said indexing had been provided by the state.
Atterberry also indicated additional discovery had been added to
the case and two more CDs. He said the prosecution had also added
two more witnesses to their case and had provided information about
all of the aforementioned to Christopher Harris' attorney, Jay
Elmore.
Elmore was asked to confirm he had received the information, and
he said that he had.
With that business completed, the judge moved on to discussing
the issue of funding for the eventual trials of Christopher and
Jason Harris.
Up until July of last year, the two brothers were eligible for
the death penalty under Illinois law. As such, the funding for their
defense was being provided through a special cash pool on the state
level.
The Capital Litigation Fund provided money to pay for
investigation assistance, the testimony of expert witnesses,
forensic and DNA testing, mitigation specialists, and other
trial-related necessities. In addition it provided the paycheck for
public defenders.
When Gov. Pat Quinn signed an act last year to abolish the death
penalty in Illinois, that pool of funds was also abolished,
effective Jan. 1, 2012.
With the funding gone, the burden falls on the county to come up
with the money needed to proceed in this case in a fair and
equitable manner.
Judge Harris said there have been discussions at the county board
level on how to raise funds for the two trials of the Harris
brothers, but to date nothing has been resolved.
In addition, he noted he has contacted a number of parties,
including some larger law firms who might take on some pro bono
work, the Northwestern University Law School, he's sought to find
available public defenders in other counties, and he has talked to
Sen. Larry Bomke and Rep. Bill Mitchell about getting assistance on
a state level. He said thus far none of those efforts have borne
fruit.
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In addition, Harris said that "a significant issue regarding
representation has come up on this case." He said he could not go
into the full details at this point but that a resolution would be
necessary before the courts could move forward.
Harris said that under the circumstances, he didn't see a need to
continue holding hearings for case management. He asked if the
defense and prosecution agreed and was told they did.
Therefore, the case of Christopher Harris is hanging in limbo
until the issue with representation is resolved. Harris also
indicated there would need to be hearings in the near future
regarding this issue.
When Jason Harris was brought into the courtroom, the judge
confirmed with Jason's attorney, Steven Skelton, that Skelton had
participated in the meetings of the attorneys on Dec. 9, and he
confirmed that he had.
The judge said it had always been the intent of the courts and
attorneys to try Christopher Harris first, then Jason. He said
because of the circumstances with Christopher's case, additional
hearings had been postponed indefinitely.
He asked Skelton if he felt a need to go to separate case
management for Jason Harris.
Skelton said he was torn on the issue, but "the state wishes for
Christopher to go first and we do go along with that, so we see no
need to now go ahead of Christopher."
Atterberry said he, too, was comfortable with waiting for the
issues in Christopher's case to be resolved.
It was decided there will be no more case management or status
hearings for either of the two brothers, at least until after
hearings to address the representation issues in the case of
Christopher Harris.
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