Suspect to judge: Will fire attorney

End trial delays, Muhammad says

— Complaining of delays, the Muslim convert accused of killing a soldier outside a Little Rock recruiting center said in a letter that he wants to fire his attorney and instead be represented by a lawyer from the Arkansas Public Defender Commission.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Herb Wright received a handwritten letter Tuesday from Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, courtfiles show. In the pencil-written, two-sentence note, signed and dated July 15, Muhammad wrote that at his next court hearing, set for Aug. 17, he will dismiss the Memphis attorney who has represented him just more than a year.

“ I’m writing this letter to inform you that I will be firing my attorney Claiborne Ferguson of Memphis, and I would like a court-appointed attorney from the Public Defender’s Commission,” the letter stated. “So whether or not he becomes a judge in Memphis on Aug. 5, I will be firing him for a public defender in our Aug. 17 hearing to avoid any more delays in this bogus upcoming trial.”

Ferguson is running for a judgeship in an election next week in Shelby County, Tenn. If he wins, it could force him to withdraw from Muhammad’s case.

On Friday, Ferguson declined to comment.

However, Muhammad’s father, Melvin Bledsoe, announced Friday that he’ll hold a news conference Monday at the Pulaski County Courthouse to talk about his concerns over how his son’s case has been handled. Ferguson was hired by Muhammad’s parents.

The 25-year-old Muhammad, born Carlos Leon Bledsoe, is facing the death penalty. He’s charged with capital murder, attempted capital murder and 11 other counts in the June 2009 shooting that killed Army Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway and wounded Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula of Jacksonville.

In May, Ferguson won a state Supreme Court case that he filed on behalf of the indigent Muhammad against the Public Defender Commission.

Ferguson sought public funding to pay for defense expert witnesses and investigators, arguing that since his client is personally too poor to afford them, prosecutors had an unconstitutional advantage over Muhammad. The commission had contended that its resources were available only to poor defendants represented by commission-appointed lawyers. The high court ruled that the commission must pay the expenses - outside of attorneys fees - for any indigent defendant who applies.

In January, Muhammad revealed that he wanted to plead guilty to the shootings - which would require the agreement of prosecutors - but it’s been unclear whether he wanted to be put to death or would accept a life sentence. Earlier this month, he told a state psychiatrist that he didn’t want any more delays in the proceedings, court filings show. He told the doctor that he’d been caught “ red-handed”and was diagnosed as competent to stand trial.

Muhammad has said the shooting was a “jihad” over U.S. military policies in the Middle East that he believes target his fellow Muslims. The state psychiatrist reported that Muhammad’s religious beliefs did not stem from any mental illness.

According to 2008 figures from the Administrative Office of the Courts, the average capital-murder case in Arkansas takes about 409 days - about

1 13/2 months - to go before a jury, while a Pulaski County capital-murder case averages 390 days - 13 months - to go to trial.

Muhammad has been jailed 14 months, and his trial, originally set for last February, was pushed back to June on a defense motion.

Proceedings have been on hold indefinitely since April when Wright ordered him to undergo a psychiatric evaluation after Muhammad was charged with additional counts while in jail. He’s accused of trying to stab one jail deputy and threatening to kill another. He also has been accused of cutting a fellow prisoner.

In the subsequent charges, Muhammad is being represented by lawyer Patrick Benca, who was appointed by the commission in April. Inthat capacity, Benca has joined Muhammad’s capital-murder defense, filing 48 motions two weeks ago on behalf of himself and Ferguson.

Benca did not return a call seeking comment, but Didi Sallings, commission director, said Friday that she has received a letter from Muhammad complaining about Ferguson and asking that the commission take over his representation.

She said she hasn’t spoken with Muhammad and expects to address the representation issue at the August hearing. Trial dates will likely be set then.

Muhammad has done nothing to refute the capital-murder and related charges since his arrest within 12 minutes of the deadly shooting and repeatedly has admitted to them in interviews and letters to police, prosecutors, reporters and a state psychiatrist.

Muhammad’s handwritten letter to the judge was received on the same day that the results of the psychiatric evaluation were filed with the court. In the doctor’s report, Muhammad described how he’d twice failed at two terror attempts in Tennessee and Kentucky before the Little Rock recruiting center shooting.

He told the doctor that before the shootings, he had tried to firebomb a Nashville, Tenn., rabbi’s home but gave up when he couldn’t break a window with his Molotov cocktail.

The rabbi wasn’t identified in court papers, but Rabbi Saul Strosberg told The Tennessean on Tuesday that he had been targeted by Muhammad, but he didn’t know why. Authorities had asked him not to disclose the incident, he told the newspaper, saying that Muhammad had picked the wrong house since he and his wife hadn’t lived there in over a year.

“[Muhammad] wasn’t really an expert at this Molotov cocktail business,” Strosberg told the newspaper. “He was not very bright but was dangerous.”

Muhammad said he then went to a recruiting station in Kentucky that he’d selected because he thought he could make an easy getaway, but he didn’t do anything there because the station was closed.

Arrest reports show that he admitted to the Little Rock shooting to police, saying he would have shot more soldiers if they had been standing outside with Long and Ezeagwula, who were on a cigarette break.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/31/2010

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