Brian Dorsey's appointed trial lawyers were paid a flat fee of $12,000 to represent him. Against the advice of another lawyer, they advised Dorsey to plead guilty without a deal from prosecutors to take the death penalty off the table.despite pleas
Two days before Christmas in 2006, two drug dealers showed up at Dorsey’s apartment, demanding money. When Dorsey called family members to request money, they declined, but went to the apartment and got the drug dealers to leave. His cousin, Sarah Bonnie, and her husband, Ben Bonnie, took Dorsey back to their place for the evening. By then, Dorsey had spent the previous two to three days drinking and smoking crack, with no sleep or food, according to the petition.
American Bar Association guidelines advise defense lawyers to be “extremely reluctant” to waive trial rights without a guarantee of no death sentence. But Dorsey’s lawyers continued with their approach. “I think the idea was, is that we were hoping for some credit for acceptance of responsibility … from the jury,” Slusher testified at the post-conviction evidentiary hearing.
Thompson, who went on to represent Dorsey during his direct appeal, was so disturbed by Slusher and McBride’s work on the case at trial that she advised they not be hired to work on death penalty cases again, sheThe Missouri Public Defender’s office no longer uses flat fees in death penalty cases because it incentivizes lawyers to minimize time spent working on the case, the office’s director, Mary Fox, wrote in aLast week, Dorsey asked the Supreme Court...
“The death penalty isn’t punishment for the convicted,” Gerhauser said. “This evening, Brian will be set free. His punishment will end, and for all of us only guilty of loving him, ours will begin. That is not the life sentence we sought.”