Supreme Court denies appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision on Jamie Weis who has been in jail in Pike County for more than four years while the Georgia Public Defender Standards Council struggles to pay for defense attorneys to handle his case.Weis is accused of the 2006 robbery-murder of Catherine King and appealed to U.S. justices to review a March decision by the Georgia high court that his constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been violated. Weis’ case has been delayed because his appointed attorneys, hired by the Standards Council in 2006, were involuntarily dismissed by the trial judge in 2007 after complaining about not being paid. They were replaced by state-salaried lawyers, then re-appointed by a visiting judge in 2009 and continue to work without having been fully compensated.In a 4-3 decision, the state Supreme Court ruled that Weis was partly to blame for his dilemma because, during the period he was represented by the circuit public defender and an assistant, he did not cooperate and insisted on having his original counsel reappointed.