Montgomery attorney Julian McPhillips is taking his defense of the three Selma Police Department (SPD) officers placed on administrative leave and indicted last year all the way to the Alabama Supreme Court.

McPhillips has filed numerous motions and petitions in the case, all to no avail, and is now planning to call on the highest court in the state to intervene.

“Even now, we don’t know and [the officers] don’t know what they’re accusing us of,” McPhillips said. “It’s one of the biggest violations of justice I’ve seen.”

The 25-page document addressed to the Alabama Supreme Court is accompanied by a 54-page appendix containing copies of the officers’ indictments, motions and petitions to the Dallas County Circuit Court and the court’s corresponding responses.

In the Petition for Writ of Mandamus, McPhillips contends that “the Circuit Court’s denial of each Petitioner’s Motion to Dismiss violates the Petitioner’s Constitutional protections of due process.”

Further, the petition states that “this constitutional issue addressing the State’s violation of their right to due process must not be delayed” and that such a delay “will cause undue injury and substantial expense” to the officers.

McPhillips is also taking exception with the fact that the state handed over 30,000 documents deemed relevant in the case, many which were difficult or expensive to open or duplicate, without indicating which of those documents contain evidence related to the officers’ indictment.

“It’s as if they don’t know themselves, which makes the whole thing a travesty,” McPhillips said. “It’s a huge travesty.”

The petition lays out a number of Alabama codes and various Supreme Court rulings to back McPhillips’ assertion that the officers have been treated unfairly and have a right to know what the exact charges are against them.

“The Petitioners have asserted a constitutionally protected liberty that has been violated – a right to due process,” the petition states. “This includes the right to be informed with clearness and certainty, and with a sufficient degree of particularity, the identity of each transaction to which each indictment relates – as to place, persons, things and other adequate details.”

The petition requests that the Alabama Supreme Court order the state to provide each officer with a clear description of the details relevant to each indictment and adequate information related to which documents provided to the defense are relevant in the case.