Holsey lawyer admits he was drunk during murder trial

JACKSON (AP) A defense attorney testified that he was drinking a quart of vodka a day during a 1997 murder trial.

Robert Wayne Holsey was sentenced to death in 1997 for the fatal shooting of a Baldwin County sheriff’s deputy in December 1995. Deputy Will Robinson, 26, had stopped Holsey because his car matched the description of a getaway vehicle in the armed robbery of a convenience store.

The Georgia Supreme Court upheld Holsey’s death sentence in December 1999, after his first round of appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Holsey’s new attorneys, from the Georgia Resource Council, are challenging the constitutionality of the trial by attempting to prove he had ineffective counsel and that he is mentally retarded.

In Wednesday’s hearing before Augusta Superior Court Judge Neal Dickert, attorney Andy Prince testified that during the trial, he would go back to his hotel room and drink until he “couldn’t drink anymore.”

“What I considered doing fine at the time was just barely getting by. I shouldn’t have been representing anybody in any case,” he said.

Prince had difficulty remembering specifics of the trial, including pretrial motions and testimony. He also said he didn’t “perceive (Holsey) to have any mental retardation.”

Another client filed a grievance against Prince shortly after Holsey’s trial, accusing him of stealing $116,000. Prince subsequently surrendered his law license, pleaded guilty to theft by taking and spent several months in prison.

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