High court rejects public defender complaint

ATLANTA - The Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected Monday the claims of two homeless Glynn County men who argued that inadequate funding of the state's public-defender system was keeping them from getting a fair trial.

Bernard Henry Robinson and Ralph Woods Sr. are awaiting trial for the 2008 beating, stabbing and shooting death of another homeless man, John Steven Mitchell. Monday's decision means their trial can proceed.

The men argued, through their attorneys, that charges against them should be dropped because they couldn't get a speedy trial as guaranteed by the Constitution, and as a result, homeless witnesses who might have offered helpful testimony have since drifted away.

Robinson and Woods are among four homeless men originally charged with Mitchell's death.

The Circuit Defender's Office represented all of them in their preliminary hearing, but that turned into a conflict of interest when two of the codefendants agreed to testify against Robinson and Woods.

Without the funding to operate multiple defenders offices, the circuit isn't able to assign separate attorneys from different offices quickly to represent indigent defendants in the same trial. The court must hire private attorneys instead.

Supreme Court justices were considering that nine-month tim

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