OLATHE, Kan. -- Lawyers for John E. Robinson Sr. have asked the judge in the case to delay the trial or remove them from the case.

Robinson's court-appointed lawyers said they "cannot and will not" be ready to try the case if it starts as scheduled on Sept. 16.

Robinson, 58, is charged in Johnson County in the deaths of three women -- Suzette Trouten and Izabela Lewicka, whose bodies were found in barrels on land he owned in Linn County, and Lisa Stasi, who disappeared in 1985. He also is charged in three other murders in Missouri.

Johnson County District Judge John Anderson III previously denied two defense motions for a delay. He could order the lawyers to remain on the case without an extension.

In Friday's motion, Robinson's lawyers said Anderson had been insensitive and unresponsive to their pleas for more time. They said that going forward on Sept. 16 would present them with troubling ethical questions, "including whether it is moral to participate in a trial where counsel's mere presence would only serve to sanitize the execution of John Robinson."

The lawyers said they need more time to conduct independent testing on some evidence, such as DNA and fingerprints, investigate Robinson's background and have a psychological evaluation performed. They asked for another eight months to prepare.

Robinson's four-lawyer legal team is led by Patrick Berrigan and Sean O'Brien, who were appointed last summer to assist the inexperienced lawyer Robinson hired to replace his original defense team.

"Had we known at that time how events would subsequently unfold, the court would have received a firm, resolute and resounding NO! in response to its request," they said Friday.

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison said he could not comment on Friday's motion because of court orders.

Indications of illness

The attorneys said in their "unskilled attempts" to investigate Robinson's background, "we have stumbled across several possible indicia of mental disease."

The defense said, "At times, Mr. Robinson appears to lack a rational understanding of the evidence and charges against him."

They said numerous death penalty convictions had been reversed because of the failure of attorneys to adequately investigate social and mental history evidence.

"A trial of this case on September 16, 2002, is exceedingly unlikely to produce a valid outcome, leaving the distinct probability that the court will have to try Mr. Robinson a second time," they argued.

The motion probably will be taken up at the next scheduled hearing in the case Thursday.