New trial denied for serial killer

A judge rejects arguments that Aileen Wuornos' former attorney deliberately mishandled her case.

By CHASE SQUIRES

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 28, 2000

DADE CITY -- A judge on Thursday denied death row serial killer Aileen Wuornos' bid for a new trial in Pasco County, rejecting her claims that her controversial attorney failed her.

In a deposition last year, that attorney -- Steven Glazer of Gainesville -- testified that he promised Wuornos that she would have an automatic appeal to her conviction if she pointed out his conduct. But he was wrong.

In a terse five-page ruling, Circuit Judge Wayne Cobb struck down each of the 14 points raised by Wuornos' new state-appointed attorney, Joseph Hobson, ruling one argument "nonsensical," another "chimerical" and another "very strange."

Hobson was unavailable for comment. Wuornos remained Thursday on death row in a Broward County state prison, according to the Department of Corrections.

In the latest appeal, Hobson argued Glazer was ineffective when he represented Wuornos here in 1992 and 1993. He said Glazer didn't do all he could to keep Wuornos from the death penalty after she pleaded guilty and that she was the victim of media coverage, devious police, and an unconstitutional death penalty law.

Wuornos, now 44, was a hitchhiking prostitute who killed six men along Florida highways in 1989 and 1990. She was sentenced to death six times.

In Pasco County, she admitted in 1992 that she killed Charles Carskaddon, a Missouri resident whose naked body was found in woods near Interstate 75. Cobb was the judge who sentenced her to death.

In support of his appeals, Hobson entered a 74-page deposition Glazer gave last year.

In it, Glazer admits he smoked marijuana, both recently and in 1992, and agreed he was filmed smoking the drug and told a British filmmaker that the ride from his office to Wuornos' South Florida prison was a "six-joint ride."

Glazer also admitted that he told Wuornos that all she had to do if she wanted to appeal is point out that he had a conflict of interest while he represented her. He said he negotiated cash payments for talk-show circuit interviews while Wuornos' case was big news.

A hearing was held in April, and in his ruling Thursday, Cobb systematically brushed off each appeal point.

Cobb said one argument "is another attempt by the defendant to remake this court into a ruminant institution by requiring this court to chew a cud composed of all arguments previously presented."

Of another point, Cobb wrote, "This court does not know how to respond to this argument except to identify it as illogical, even nonsensical."

Cobb ruled he will not hear any further evidence on the motions and will not lift the death penalty he imposed. He said Wuornos' happiness with her odd choice for a defense attorney in Glazer is of no concern to the court.

"Mr. Glazer conducted the defendant's case as she directed," the judge wrote. "She may now have changed her mind, or perhaps all along she has been counting on the impotency of the Florida judicial system to deal with her tactics as Mr. Glazer implied."

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