Dr. Shirley Turner is broke.
The 41-year-old physician is seeking a publicly financed defense attorney in Newfoundland to continue an appeal of her extradition to the United States, where she faces a murder charge in the death last year of a medical resident at Latrobe Area Hospital.
The Telegram, a newspaper in St. John's, Newfoundland, reported Wednesday that Turner, who is in a Canadian prison, has asked to be represented by a legal aid lawyer, Canada's equivalent of a public defender in this country.
Defense attorney Randolph Piercey withdrew as her attorney after filing an appeal of a decision last week by Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Derek Green. The ruling cleared the way for the return of the physician to Westmoreland County to face a charge of first-degree homicide.
Turner is accused of shooting Dr. Andrew Bagby, 28, of Latrobe, five times after they allegedly met in Keystone State Park in Derry Township to discuss the end of their romantic relationship. Turner, who claims she was pregnant at the time with Bagby's child, is alleged by investigators to have shot him because he had a date with another woman on the day he was killed.
One of Piercey's last legal acts was to file an appeal of Green's decision. The appeal argues that Green should have granted a defense motion to drop the extradition request and that Green failed to "properly apply the law as it relates to circumstantial evidence."
In his ruling, Green said sufficient circumstantial evidence exists in the case for a jury to conclude that Turner killed Bagby. In this country, Turner is represented by Pittsburgh attorney Anthony Mariani, who said the Westmoreland County District Attorney's Office has presented a "very weak, circumstantial case" against his client to Canadian authorities.
"Dr. Turner is not the person who did it," said Mariani, who declined to elaborate.
The United States and Canada have an extradition treaty that allows each country to seek the return of people accused of crimes in their respective nations as long as the crime also would be an offense under that nation's law. If the appeal fails, Turner could take her case directly to Justice Minister Martin Cauchon and ask him not to send her back.
Piercey had argued that the procedures followed by U.S. authorities and the methods used to accumulate evidence against Turner were not done in accordance with Canadian rules of evidence. Green rejected the arguments and ordered her held in jail pending a final decision by Cauchon.
District Attorney John Peck has been seeking Turner's return since state police filed a homicide charge against her while she still was living and working as a physician in Iowa. She went to Canada, she said, to be near a son from a previous marriage who was seriously injured in an automobile accident.
Authorities here suspect Turner fled because she holds dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship and reasoned that it would be hard to get her back if Peck sought the death penalty against her. In the past, Canada has been reluctant to return its citizens to other countries that have the death penalty. As part of an agreement with Canada, Peck has agreed not to seek a death sentence if Turner is convicted.
Meanwhile, Mariani said the son Turner delivered this summer is Bagby's. The baby is being cared for by Bagby's parents, David and Kate Bagby, in St. John's.
"It's his kid," Mariani said. "Paternity is not an issue."
He said the Bagbys initially filed for partial custody in Newfoundland, where the court awarded them an hour of visitation each week. When Green ordered Turner taken into custody pending extradition, they gained full custody of their grandson.
Mariani said the Bagbys regularly take the child to the prison to visit Turner. The couple, who left their California home to stay in St. John's, declined to comment.
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