Birt v. State

Hunt, Justice.

Billy Sunday Birt was convicted of two murders and given the death sentence in 1975 in Jefferson County. Birt v. State, 236 Ga. 815 (225 SE2d 248) (1976). After subsequent habeas corpus proceedings, those sentences were vacated and the case remanded to Jefferson County for resentencing. In March 1989, Millard Farmer, Joe Nursey, and Carla Friend [hereinafter Farmer], Birt’s long-time pro bono counsel, sought appointment for his indigent defense and for compensation for representing him at the resentencing trial. The trial court refused to allow Farmer to withdraw as pro bono…