WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Delaware's public defenders have continued their push to reopen hundreds of drug cases by saying that the state should not be allowed to argue that one drug felon can withdraw his guilty plea while hundreds of others cannot.
The Wilmington News Journal reports that the Office of the Public Defender filed a motion Friday asking Superior Court Judge William Carpenter to bar prosecutors from arguing that the guilty pleas cannot be vacated just because the defendants admitted guilt.
The motion is the defenders' latest filing since evidence thefts were discovered in Delaware's drug lab last year. The office has argued that the judge should reopen about 230 cases in which New Castle County defendants pleaded guilty before the drug lab scandal put thousands of drug cases in jeopardy.
