Judy Clarke, a federal public defender from San Diego has been brought in as a attorney certified for death-penalty cases to help with the defense of Delilah Williams, the stepmother of 5-year-old Talia Williams, who along with her husband, Army Spc. Naeem Williams, has been charged by federal authorities with murder in connection with Talia's death.

If convicted, both face life in prison or the death penalty under federal sentencing statutes. U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said Tuesday that it is too early to decide if a death penalty recommendation is warranted and that the investigation into Talia's death is open and continuing.

It is at least the sixth time the death-penalty option has been available to federal prosecutors in Hawai'i in the past decade, according to Advertiser archives.

In addition to serving as co-counsel on Theodore Kaczynski's legal team during his 1998 trial on charges of murdering three and wounding 23 with homemade bombs, Clarke made national headlines by helping to convince a jury that Susan Smith didn't deserve the death penalty for drowning her two young sons in a South Carolina lake in 1995.

Federal statutes say defendants facing a possible death sentence must be represented by two attorneys, one of whom must be certified to handle capital cases, as Clarke is.

Lawyers must take courses and follow certain procedures to become certified to defend a case where the death penalty is an option. Naeem Williams' attorney, David Klein, said yesterday he is seeking a second attorney who is certified in handling death-penalty cases.

Hawai'i is one of 12 states that do not have the death penalty and few, if any, local attorneys are certified for capital cases.

If Delilah and Naeem Williams are indicted by a federal grand jury, it would trigger an automatic review by the U.S. Department of Justice to determine if the death penalty should be sought. Kubo is required to make a recommendation in the case, but it would have to be approved by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Talia died July 16 after she was beaten and knocked to the floor of the family's Wheeler Army Airfield apartment. An autopsy found she died of "inflicted head trauma due to battered-child syndrome."

The military charged Naeem Williams, 25, with murder on July 28. Delilah Williams, 21, was indicted in federal court on a charge of first-degree murder on July 18.

On Tuesday, Kubo successfully transferred the Army's case against Naeem Williams to federal court so that the soldier and his wife could be tried before the same judge and jury. He said the transfer was made primarily to prevent a "he said, she said" situation and not because of the death-penalty option.

The death penalty was abolished in Hawai'i under territorial law in 1957, and later under state law, but the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988 only for murders in the course of a drug conspiracy, according to the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C.

The statute was expanded to cover 60 offenses in 1994, including deaths resulting from carjackings and drive-by shootings.

Last year, Congress further amended the first-degree murder statute to include any "pattern and practice of assault and torture against a child" that results in the child's death.

Naeem and Delilah Williams are the first defendants in the nation to be prosecuted under the new provision, Kubo said Tuesday.