98911, People v. Baez

the time of his removal as my lawyer it was my understanding thatwere going to take the case to trial.” Defendant also averred, “I feltdespondent at Attorney Granich’s removal from the case and believedthat I had no hope in proceeding without him as my lawyer, which iswhen I expressed my desire to plead guilty.”On January 16, 2008, a hearing was held in the circuit court onthe motion to withdraw guilty plea. Defense counsel indicated that hewished to call a number of witnesses to which the State objected onrelevance grounds, and the court allowed him to make an offer ofproof. Counsel indicated that he intended to call James Anderson,administrator of the Cook County portion of the Capital LitigationTrust Fund. Anderson would provide a spreadsheet of disbursementsfrom the Capital Litigation Trust Fund from January 1, 2000, to thedate of the hearing in 2008. In particular, the defense would seek toadmit the portion of the spreadsheet showing disbursements in 2000and 2001, before the Capital Litigation Trial Bar had been created.According to counsel, the spreadsheet showed “substantial”disbursements to appointed counsel, as well as investigators andexperts. Counsel would highlight two cases in which payments weremade to Jeffrey Granich, and additional cases in which paymentswere made to Barry Spector, Robert Loeb, and Debra Seaton.Counsel also made an offer of proof with respect to the testimonyof Robert Loeb, whom he intended to call for defendant. Loeb wouldtestify that he and Debra Seaton were appointed and paid out of theCapital Litigation Trust Fund in 2000 to represent Andre Crawford,though neither of them was a member of the not-yet-created CapitalLitigation Trial Bar. He would also testify that neither he nor Seatonhad been retained by Crawford prior to appointment.Finally, counsel made an offer of proof of the related testimonyhe would elicit from Jeffrey Granich if permitted. Granich wouldtestify that he was appointed in two capital cases in 2000 and 2001,although he was not a member of the Capital Litigation Trial Bar atthe time, nor had he become a member since. He would also testifythat he was not appointed “on the eve of trial,” although one of thecases was “fairly far along” at the time of his appointment. Inaddition, Granich would testify that one of the cases took at least ayear and a half to be tried.The State objected, arguing that the proffered testimony was-40-