Howard Hawk Willis update (2002 murder-dismemberment)
Indigo Ace
murder-dismemberment of a teen couple, Adam Chrismer and Samantha
Leming) & did a Google news search. After years of delay, it's
looking as if this might finally come to trial.
From the Kingston [TN] Times-News--
Judge appoints 'elbow counsel' to aid Willis as he serves as his own
attorney
Published 04/18/2008 By Becky Campbell
JOHNSON CITY — Jim Bowman was in, then he was out, and now he’s in
again.
But this time, his role in Howard Hawk Willis’ case won’t be the
signature lead death penalty attorney he’s known for. Bowman will be
elbow counsel to the 57-year-old Willis, who in the words of Criminal
Court Judge Lynn Brown has “manipulated” the judicial system far too
long.
Brown appointed Bowman as Willis’ elbow counsel during a brief
appearance Friday. It may be an ironic turn of events in the
six-year-old case, but Bowman was Willis’ first attorney in the case.
Brown let Bowman out after the attorney-client relationship fell
apart.
Friday’s hearing followed a longer one on Thursday during which Brown
allowed attorneys Gene Scott and T. Wood Smith out of the case and
ruled Willis must now represent himself after having fired attorneys,
refused to work with or get along with his attorneys, and caused
numerous delays in the double murder case.
As elbow counsel, Bowman will advise Willis on court procedures but
will have no other role in the man’s defense.
Willis is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and three
counts of abuse of a corpse in the October 2002 deaths and mutilation
of Adam Chrismer and Samantha Leming, a teenage couple from Georgia.
State prosecutors are seeking the death penalty if Willis is convicted
of murder.
Representing himself wasn’t what Willis wanted, but Brown refused to
appoint the two attorneys from Knoxville that Willis asked him to put
on the case.
“You don’t get to choose your lawyer,” Brown told Willis on Thursday,
reminding him that he’d had plenty of competent attorneys appointed
already. Brown said the problem appeared to be Willis’
misunderstanding of Tennessee law and his refusal to accept what his
attorneys have told him can be presented as evidence during a trial.
“It looked like the way you were going yesterday you were about to
damage your case,” Brown told Willis on Friday.
“A person who represents himself has a fool for a client. You’ve not
taken that to heart,” he said.
Willis came back with the comment that it was Brown who forced him
into representing himself. “I’m not the fool,” Willis said.
But Brown would not accept that responsibility.
“We have wasted tens of thousands of taxpayers dollars on your lawyers
because you won’t pay any attention to what they say because you think
you’re smarter than everybody else. If that makes me a fool, that’s
just the way it is. I’m just an ol’ boy from Carter County perhaps
whose little weak mind got farther than it should have. But that’s the
way it is. You’re representing yourself, and you have done it to
yourself.”
Brown also told Willis that if he decides to sue the judge in an
attempt to delay the trial again, it just won’t work.
“If you sue me I’m not even going to read the lawsuit. I’ve been sued
lots of times, and it’s to the point that it just doesn’t matter.”
“You are possessed with a degree of asininity that I’ve never
encountered. I intend to give you a fair trial, as difficult as you’re
making that, and that’s the way it is. Don’t think you’re going to sue
me to get me off the case because I’m not going to read it. I’ll send
it down to the attorney general,” Brown said.
Brown set motion dates for the case on May 28 and June 10. The trial
remains set for jury selection July 10 and 11 in a currently
undisclosed jurisdiction, with testimony scheduled to start July 12.
http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9006021
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