Inmate's ex-lawyer says he guaranteed an appeal

The woman, now on death row, is appealing her case. Her former lawyer says his actions guaranteed her an appeal.

By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 15, 2000

DADE CITY -- In a deposition last fall, anti-death penalty attorney Steven Glazer said he told his client, serial killer Aileen Wuornos, that he was giving her guaranteed grounds for appeal.

All she had to do was point out that he negotiated cash payments for interviews when her case was a hot property on the talk-show circuit.

Wuornos' case is due back before a Pasco County judge Monday for state-appointed attorneys to argue she had bad legal representation from Glazer.

For instance, the defense team points out, there was the time he allowed himself to be filmed as he accepted $10,000 in cash from a British filmmaker in exchange for an interview with Wuornos.

Wuornos, now 44, was a hitchhiking prostitute who killed six men along Florida interstates in 1989 and 1990 and received six death sentences. In Pasco County, she pleaded guilty in 1992 to killing Charles Carskaddon, a Missouri resident whose naked body was found in woods near Interstate 75 in central Pasco.

Circuit Judge Wayne Cobb sentenced her to die.

But state capital collateral attorney Joseph Hobson, assigned to represent Wuornos, plans to ask the same judge Monday for a hearing so he can present evidence that Wuornos didn't have adequate legal representation by Glazer.

In a 74-page deposition submitted in support of the hearing, and eventually a new trial, Glazer admits he smoked marijuana, recently and in 1992. He said he told a filmmaker that the ride from his office to Wuornos' South Florida prison was a 'six-joint ride" and was photographed smoking marijuana.

The attorney, who met Wuornos while helping former Ocala horse breeder and born-again Christian Arlene Pralle adopt her as she sat in jail awaiting trial, said he agreed to let Wuornos plead guilty and get death sentences because it was what his client wanted. He said he engaged in what he called 'anti-lawyering" -- taking pains to cover all angles in court so her pleas would be appeal-proof.

Glazer, who said his life was ruined by handling the case, described how he tried to manipulate press coverage while guiding her to the death penalty and put up just enough of a defense to make it hard for appeals lawyers to overturn her death sentence.

'You put on evidence so that it would insulate any attacks from it on appeal?" Hobson asked during the November deposition.

'Yes," Glazer answered.

'So this was just a token effort?"

'Yes."

Glazer said he thought it was his client's right to choose her own fate, but he was opposed to the death penalty.

'I don't care what anyone has done," he said.

If she changed her mind, Glazer said, all she had to do was point out his financial dealings.

'I told her, if she ever wanted to put a monkey wrench in the system, if you ever decide that you don't want the electric chair, I told her point-blank all you have to do is raise the issue to CCR that Steven Glazer had a financial interest in the outcome," he said. 'That would put a monkey wrench in the system."

Her new capital collateral attorney, Hobson, said that not only did Glazer have a financial stake, but he also failed to bring up vital information during her sentencing hearing and did not adequately prepare for her court appearances.

Glazer also told Hobson he had only worked 12 felony cases before taking on Wuornos, and when asked why he didn't ask for help from a more experienced attorney, he said: 'I just didn't. I was probably ineffective."

Wuornos had been scheduled to appear in court Monday, but on Friday afternoon, with Pasco County jail officers on the way to pick her up, Hobson had her transportation order canceled and left her in a Broward County prison cell.

Glazer also said he accepted $300 from the Geraldo Rivera talk show to pay for a rental car to drive to a taping. He said that he accepted a $10,000 cash payment from a filmmaker, on camera, but that the money was strictly for Wuornos, although he said she later gave him $2,500 of it, even though he never asked for it.

Although he denied taking money from the Montel Williams talk show, Pralle testified in a February deposition that he got another $3,300 for that.

Glazer said Friday he was not allowed to talk about the case. Hobson was not available for comment.

Pralle, 52, said she regretted taking money in exchange for interviews.

'I never, ever, ever should have taken 10 cents for doing any of those," she said in her deposition.

She said she never got any money, however, for helping author Dolores Kennedy with her book, On a Killing Day. Despite promises for payment, Pralle said Kennedy told her the publisher went out of business before she could be paid.

At her deposition, Pralle said she and her husband had sold their Ocala horse farm and were moving to the Bahamas, to an address she never wants reporters or the public to know.

'In total honesty, I will be thrilled to be out of the media circuit," she said.

Glazer, too, said he was tired of the Wuornos saga.

The case took a toll on his health, he said, forcing him into heart surgery. Even during the deposition, Glazer said he was suffering from stress-related heart problems.

'And it also, in the end, ruined my reputation," Glazer said. 'It ruined everything."

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