One Salt Lake attorney will spend Labor Day weekend laboring to keep convicted killer William Andrews alive.
Andrews' attorney, Bob Anderson, plans to petition the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals for a rehearing after the court denied Andrews appeal last week. In a 72-page decision, the court Monday affirmed a federal judge's denial of Andrews' appeal.Anderson has 14 days to ask the court to rehear Andrews request for a new hearing on the effectiveness of his defense lawyer. Andrews seeks a rehearing because his court-appointed lawyer, John Caine, had only been out of law school a year when he defended Andrews against capital murder charges. Andrews believes Caine inadequately defended him when he failed to ask for the option of a second-degree murder conviction.
While Anderson spends the holiday weekend preparing Andrews' petition for a rehearing, state attorneys are deciding whether to seek a death warrant next week.
If the 10th Circuit Court turns his latest petition down, Anderson intends to knock on the high court's door in behalf of Andrews one more time.
"We will be pursuing all available avenues," he said.
Anderson acknowledged that it's unlikely the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Andrews case. A very small percentage of requests for hearings before the high court are granted, he said.
The Supreme Court has rejected Andrews arguments four times already.
An Ogden jury sentenced Andrews and Pierre Dale Selby to death for the 1974 torture murder of three people during the robbery of Ogden's Hi Fi Shop.
Selby was executed in 1987. A 2nd District Court judge has signed seven death warrants for Andrews in the past 17 years, but 19 appeals have come between Andrews and death.
Andrews has been on death row longer than any living inmate in the nation.