Green attorney wants out

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

July 25, 2008 12:17 pm

— Big questions have now settled over an upcoming capital murder trial for a Wynnewood defendant after one of his court-appointed attorneys formally expressed his desire to step away from the case.
It was Craig Corgan who filed the motion Monday to withdraw from his role as defense attorney for Franklin Green, 62, who is facing the death penalty in the brutal shooting death of his wife last year.
Corgan made it clear in the document filed in Garvin County District Court that differences between him and his client make it impossible for him to move forward in the case.
Specifically, Corgan, who was appointed to represent Green through the Oklahoma Indigent Defense System, believes those differences come from a breakdown in the attorney-client relationship in this case.
“Counsel feels that the breakdown is such that he can no longer represent Mr. Green,” Corgan stated in the motion document.
He added the breakdown in his working relationship with Green leads to believe that it’s not possible for another court-appointed attorney to successfully step in as the defendant’s counsel.
The request to withdraw comes after several other motions were filed in the case last week as Green’s murder trial is currently scheduled to begin in just under four weeks.
To address the most recent motion Corgan requested a closed-door hearing with Garvin County District Judge Candace Blalock.
This request is based on discussions expected to involve trial strategy and attorney-client privileged communications.
The motions, which have to get rulings, were on such topics as the death penalty, a closed jury selection to prevent pretrial publicity and jurors expressing reservations regarding the death penalty.
Included in the filings was a lengthy list of state witnesses who could be called to testify during the planned trial.
No information was included in the filed motion about G. Lynn Birch, who was also assigned to represent Green in the case.
Green has remained behind bars with bond denied since his arrest on April 10, 2007 only minutes after witnesses said he brutally gunned down his wife, Gloria Hunter Green, on a downtown Wynnewood street.
Many of those witnessing the incident told authorities they saw the defendant deliberately and in cold blood fire the six deadly shots that killed Hunter near the front of her own barber shop in the 100 block of N. Dean A. McGee in Wynnewood.
Since that time Green has openly objected to his first-degree murder trial being delayed for nearly a year claiming it violated his right to a speedy trial.
During a court appearance last fall Green also made it clear he would rather plead guilty than face jurors in a trial.
“I just want to plead guilty and move on with this,” Green said during that hearing.
“This is a waste of the county’s time and the county’s money. They’re going to find me guilty. Whether I get life in prison or death it’s going to be guilty,” he said.
At the advice of his attorneys Green didn’t offer the plea into the record.