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Posted: 7:34 AM- The longtime leader of the Salt Lake Legal Defenders Association, John Hill, announced his retirement Tuesday after more than three decades of criminal defense.
"Well . . . I'm old," he explained with a chuckle, noting that he likely will split his retirement between homes in St. George and Island Park, Idaho, after leaving the office at the end of this year.
Hill has watched the public defender's office, for people who can't afford counsel of their own, grow to 67 attorneys from just eight when his took the job in 1971.
He has worked more than 50 murder cases since then, including the high-profile capital case against polygamist leader Ervil LeBaron, who ordered the deaths of religious opponents.
Hill will remain with the Legal Defenders Association through December - long enough to advocate in November the organization's funding before the financially strapped Salt Lake County County.