Jefferson County has hired attorney Jeremy A. Morris as a special deputy prosecuting attorney to help handle an appeal of Michael J. Pierce's murder conviction from 2014.
Morris is a private …
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Michael J. Pierce (far left) looks over paperwork with his defense attorney Richard Davies, as Jefferson County Chief Criminal Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Chris Ashcraft and then prosecutor Scott Rosekrans discuss the sentence imposed Dec. 12, 2014 on Pierce by Kitsap County Superior Court Judge Sally Olsen for the murders of Patrick and Janice Yarr. Ashcraft is no longer with the prosecutor's office and Michael Haas was elected in 2014 as prosecuting attorney. The state Supreme Court has denied further appeal of the conviction. File photo by Allison Arthur
Jefferson County has hired attorney Jeremy A. Morris as a special deputy prosecuting attorney to help handle an appeal of Michael J. Pierce's murder conviction from 2014.
Morris is a private attorney with the firm of Glisson & Morris, based in Port Orchard. He's to be paid $12,000 to handle an appeal on behalf of the Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, which is facing an April 5 deadline to respond to the appeal filed Nov. 24, 2015 by attorney Catherine E. Glinski.
Prosecuting Attorney Michael Haas, who in December said the case was the highest priority for his office, had requested the assistance, which county Administrator Philip Morley said earlier the county was willing to provide.
The appeals agreement between the county and Morris was approved March 7 by Jefferson County commissioners.
The agreement with Morris includes a provision that he will not appear as a criminal defense attorney in Jefferson County nor will he appear as proposing counsel in any civil case in Jefferson County.
The county is to provide files Morris might need and pay for any transcripts and court costs. The case is headed to the state Court of Appeals.
“We requested a continuance awhile back which was granted,” Haas said in an email March 8. He said the new date is April 5 and “We hope we don't need any further continuances.”
“Mr. Morris is the former chief of the appellate unit in Kitsap County and is very well respected,” Haas wrote of Morris.
NEW APPEAL OUTLINED
Six potential causes for a dismissal or reversal of Michael J. Pierce's second conviction in the 2009 deaths of Janice and Patrick Yarr are outlined in a new appeal filed by Glinski.
The appeal is a required formality, paid for by the State of Washington because Pierce, who is incarcerated in Washington State Penitentiary, in Walla Walla, is considered indigent.
The 85-page appeal lists six reason why Glinski is urging dismissal of the charges against Pierce ranging from a medication issue that arose when Kitsap County Jail failed to provide Pierce with medications during a trial in 2014 to jury instructions regarding testimony of jailhouse informants.
THE CONVICTION
A Kitsap County jury found Pierce guilty on Nov. 12, 2014 in the deaths of the Yarrs on March 18, 2009. That jury also found Pierce guilty of one count each of first-degree burglary, first-degree robbery, first-degree arson, theft of a firearm, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm and second-degree theft.
Pierce had been found guilty of all of those crimes in Jefferson County in 2010. The state Court of Appeals threw out the first trial, saying there were errors that justified giving Pierce a new trial.
The second trial sputtered in Jefferson County in 2013, was moved to Kitsap County in 2014, where it ran afoul in March 2014, when it was discovered that while in Kitsap County Jail, Pierce had not been given medications he needed in order to participate in his defense. Finally, a fourth trial ended in Pierce's second conviction.
