Death penalty trial on hold for now

The death penalty trial of accused murderer Jamie Weis is on hold pending his appeal to the Georgia Supreme Court.Superior Court Judge Johnnie Caldwell Jr. of the Griffin Judicial Circuit signed an order Aug. 25 continuing the trial.Weis’ trial at the Pike County courthouse had been set for the weeks of Oct. 5 and Oct. 12. Caldwell, noting the state’s highest court has docketed Weis’ appeal, ordered ‘the trial of this case is hereby continued until further order of this court.’Weis, who is accused of murdering an elderly neighbor at her home in Pike County, contends in his appeal he has been denied the right to a speedy trial due to persistent lack of funding from Georgia’s indigent defense system. Weis’ defense team only recently got some money from the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council.’It’s contrary to every notion of fairness, due process and the proper working of an adversary system for one side to be held down until right before trial and then suddenly given some funding and told to make up in two or three months for three years,’ complains Weis’ legal brief filed before the Supreme Court. Weis is accused of fatally shooting Catherine King, 73, during a burglary at her Williamson home in February 2006.