SSRI - Retrial for killer in Zoloft case - Christopher Pitman

Retrial for killer in Zoloft case

Judge rules 15-year-old convicted of murdering grandparents didn't get effective counsel.
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/07/28/1586353/new-trial-ordered-in-sc-case.html



By Andrew Dys and Kimberly Dick
adys@heraldonline.com
Posted: Wednesday, Jul. 28, 2010

Nov. 29, 2001: Bodies of Joe Frank Pittman and Joy Roberts Pittman are found in the burned ruins of their home. Their 12-year-old grandson, Christopher Pittman, later confessed to the killings. His family believes the antidepressant Zoloft caused the boy's violent behavior.

June 27, 2003: Family Court Judge Walter Brown decides Pittman will be tried as an adult.

Sept. 13, 2004: An FDA advisory panel recommends the agency warn doctors and patients that antidepressants can cause some children to become suicidal.

Jan. 31, 2005: Pittman's murder trial begins in Charleston. About two weeks later, the jury finds Pittman guilty. Circuit Court Judge Daniel Pieper sentences him to two concurrent 30-year sentences.

March 28, 2006: Pittman's attorneys file a motion asking the S.C. Supreme Court to overturn his conviction.

Oct. 5, 2006: S.C. Supreme Court hears Pittman's appeal for conviction to be overturned.

June 11, 2007: The S.C. Supreme Court upholds Pittman's murder conviction.

Aug. 26, 2009: A three-day evidentiary hearing in response to Pittman's civil lawsuit application for post-relief conviction is held in Circuit Court in Winnsboro.

July 27, 2010: Circuit Court Judge Roger Young vacates Pittman's convictions for two counts of murder and orders a new trial.

CHESTER, S.C. Christopher Pittman - convicted of killing his grandparents in 2001 when he was 12 - should get a new trial because defense attorneys failed to pursue a plea deal during his 2005 trial, a judge ruled Tuesday.


The trial, held in Charleston, drew nationwide attention because Pittman was tried as an adult when he was 15, and because his lawyers claimed the prescription antidepressant Zoloft altered his behavior.


Pittman burned down his grandparents' rural Chester County home in an attempt to cover up the shotgun slayings, then fled in the family truck before he was found by hunters in nearby Cherokee County.


Pittman, now 21, has been in prison since his arrest soon after the bodies of Joe and Joy Pittman were discovered.


Prosecutors didn't buy what came to be known as the Zoloft defense, maintaining that Pittman killed his grandparents after he was disciplined. A jury agreed, and Pittman was sentenced to two concurrent 30-year prison terms - the shortest sentence for double murder allowed under the law.


"I am delighted that, for whatever reason, Chris Pittman will have another chance at justice," Andy Vickery, Pittman's lead defense attorney in the 2005 trial, said in a statement.


The state Attorney General's office plans to appeal the ruling of Circuit Court Judge Roger Young of Charleston.


"We are working on the language of that appeal immediately," said Mark Plowden, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.


Tuesday's ruling came after a three-day civil trial last summer. Pittman filed a civil lawsuit claiming his lawyers mishandled the case. His appeals to the state Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court had failed.


Young wrote that Pittman's right to effective counsel was violated when the defense team made several errors in the case, including not pursuing a potential plea deal, not explaining to Pittman that a plea deal could have meant a shorter sentence, and not telling Pittman's court-appointed guardian ad litem of a potential plea deal.


The guardian, attorney Milton Hamilton of Chester, testified last summer that he would have advised Pittman to take a plea deal of voluntary manslaughter if it had been offered, according to Tuesday's court order.


Hamilton declined to comment on the order Tuesday but confirmed that was his testimony last year.


"By failing to inform Hamilton of the potential plea, Vickery prevented him from fulfilling a role as someone who had no other interest other than Pittman's at heart," Young wrote.


Seth Farber of New York, who represented Pittman in the civil case, said he will continue to represent him.


"We are very pleased for Christopher," he said.


Delnora Duprey, Pittman's maternal grandmother who lives in Florida, said Tuesday evening she had not had a chance to talk to Pittman about the ruling and was not even certain that he knew yet of the order granting him a new trial.


Duprey and her husband, Wilfred, both said they had prayed for the outcome.


"We are very pleased and thankful for the decision," she said.


Unaware of plea bargain


In last year's hearing, Pittman took the stand for the first time in years of court proceedings, saying his chief attorneys - lawyers who specialized in suing pharmaceutical companies - told him they were convinced the jury would blame Zoloft for the killings.


He also said they never told him jurors in South Carolina could both blame the drug and find him guilty of murder.


"I wasn't told even if Zoloft was a part in my crime, I still could be found guilty and I was looking at 30 years to life," he said. "With the plea bargain, I could have gotten a lot less."


In Tuesday's ruling, Young agreed. He pointed out that Pittman could have been sentenced to anywhere from two to 30 years for voluntary manslaughter.


Young used the term "recklessness" to describe Vickery's advice to Pittman that "he could not imagine a jury convicting him."


"It is clear that Vickery based his legal advice on what he wished the law was, rather than what it was," Young wrote, concerning a defense of involuntary intoxication.


Failing to pursue negotiations for a plea deal as suggested by the trial judge was "objectively unreasonable" and "deficient," Young wrote.


Little S.C. law experience


Young's ruling pointed out that Pittman's legal team had little experience in South Carolina criminal law.


Vickery had argued before, during and after the trial that Pittman should not be tried as an adult, and that Zoloft had caused the killings.


What happens next for Pittman - and where it could happen - remain unclear, pending the outcome of the attorney general's appeal.

Although the crime happened in Chester, the 2005 trial was held in Charleston because a judge from there was assigned to the case.


The solicitor from Richland County prosecuted the case because the prosecutor from Chester County at the time was ill.


Doug Barfield, current prosecutor for Chester County, declined to comment directly on the order.


"Clearly two people died a very violent death in Chester County," he said, "and a man was convicted of those crimes."


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