State of Iowa v. Lavelle Lonelle McKinley

HECHT, Justice.

The district court appointed two attorneys from the Des Moines adult public defender’s office to represent the defendant on a murder charge. After reviewing the State’s list of expected witnesses, the two defense attorneys realized other attorney colleagues in their office had previously represented three of the State’s witnesses on unrelated matters. The attorneys brought this potential conflict of interest to the district court’s attention and requested a ruling whether a conflict of interest precludes them from representing the defendant. After the hearing, the district…