Dec 20, 2005 9:05 pm US/Central
Vang Asks For Public Defender To Handle His Appeal
(AP)
A Minnesota truck driver sentenced to life in prison for killing six deer hunters and wounding two others during a dispute over trespassing has requested that the state public defender's office handle his appeal.
No attorney had been appointed by Tuesday, according to the Sawyer County clerk of courts.
Private attorneys from Milwaukee represented Chai Soua Vang, 37, of St. Paul, after he was charged with the killings in November 2004.
An administrator of the appellate division of the public defender's office in Madison did not immediately return a telephone message Tuesday.
Cornelia Clark, clerk of the state Appeals Court in Madison, said Vang's filing of the notice of intent to appeal in Sawyer County just days after he was sentenced last November preserved his right to appeal. It could lead to post-conviction motions being filed in circuit court or the case moving directly to the state Appeals Court, which would require a filing of a formal notice of appeal, she said.
But the whole process remains on hold, pending the appointment of a public defender to handle his appeal, Clark said. After that, transcripts of court proceedings would likely be ordered for attorneys to review, she said.
"It could be a long time before we know whether an appeal will be filed," Clark said.
On the second day of the 2004 deer hunting season, Vang trespassed in a tree stand on private land in southern Sawyer County. An angry confrontation ensued with a group of white hunters, and Vang fatally shot six of them and wounded two others.
During his trial, Vang testified he shot in self-defense after the others hurled profanities and racial slurs and took a shot at him. But two survivors testified no one pointed a gun at Vang, and a jury found him guilty.
Prosecutors contended Vang got very angry, exploded in violence and shot four of the victims in the back.
The military veteran and father of seven children was sentenced Nov. 8 to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, who prosecuted Vang, has requested that he pay $84,572 in restitution to the victims and their families, all from the Rice Lake area.
Among possible issues that could be reviewed in any appeal by Vang is whether Judge Norman Yackel ruled correctly in allowing prosecutors to use as evidence some admissions that Vang made to investigators after he was arrested.
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