 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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