Dear Editor,
Chris Snow—standing in the dark beside his stalled truck a quarter mile from an attempted burglary committed by 2 strangers he had driven in kindness—was arrested, jailed, and convicted by a jury, and is soon to be sentenced in Mohave County Superior Court.
Released after last Dec. until now Sept., this homeless Kingman visitor has had to live off local kindness, trapped by due process and awaiting trial.
Chris Snow was passed between 3 Public Defenders after he refused to plead guilty. The third attempted to trial by jury without success.
At the same time, a murder trial was in session so that radio and newspapers followed it as quick easy news.
Failed due process is not news. It goes down one obscure case after another. Crime is defined by verdicts. Punishment is the price paid by the convicted for the verdict. This is the rule of law.
Are Public Defenders competent enough to select a jury? Competent enough to cross-examine? Do Public Defenders take the necessary time for strategy, merit, discovery, motions?
Chris Snow’s case is worthy of such inquiry.
Henry Nickel
Kingman
