State v. Maletta

Defendant was charged with kidnapping, rape, murder and three counts of aggravated murder. The state appeals the trial court’s dismissal of the aggravated murder charges, ORS 138.060(1), for which capital punishment is a possibility. The basis for the dismissal was that defendant was not represented at his preliminary hearing by an attorney qualified under the State Court Administrator’s standards to represent indigent defendants in capital or other murder cases.1 The state argues that the dismissal was not proper, because defendant was not prejudiced by the appointment or the representation.…