State seeks out in killer boys' civil suit

— The state Public Defender Commission should not be required to pay civil lawsuit defense costs for two boys who were convicted of killing five people last year at Westside Middle School near Jonesboro, the commission's executive director said Wednesday.

Didi Sallings told a subcommittee of the Legislative Council that the state plans to ask the state Supreme Court today or Friday for a writ of prohibition to prevent public defenders from paying the boys' legal bills in a case where they were sued on behalf of the victims and victims' relatives.

The state attorney general will present the request to the Supreme Court.

"I don't believe that there is a statutory basis that requires us to pay," Sallings told the Litigation Reports Subcommittee.

Craighead County Circuit Judge David Burnett has ruled that the funds for the defense of the boys in the civil lawsuit against them should come from the Craighead County public defenders' budget, which is about $140,000 from the state annually.

Burnett ruled that public defender funds could be used in the civil case under a state law providing for such funds for representation of people considered incompetent because of their youth.

Three lawyers on the subcommittee -- Sen. Mike Beebe, D-Searcy; Sen. Morril Harriman, D-Van Buren; and Rep. Jim Luker, D-Wynne -- questioned why the public defenders would have to pay the hefty legal bills from a civil trial.

"How are you ordered to pay for something when you're not a party before the court?" Beebe asked Sallings.

"That's a good question," she replied.

Harriman noted that the commission was established to pay for "indigent criminal cases," not civil cases.

The two boys, Andrew Golden and Mitchell Johnson, were 11 and 13 when they fired on students and teachers March 24, 1998, at the school. The two killed five people and wounded 10 others.

The boys were convicted of five counts of capital murder and 10 counts of first-degree battery. Four of the slain and nine of the wounded were children. The other two were teachers.

Also named defendants in the civil case were the boys' parents, two gun manufacturers and Andrew's grandfather Doug Golden.

The suit seeks punitive and compensatory damages and an order that would prevent the boys or their families from profiting from the shootings through the sale of books, movie deals or other entertainment ventures.

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