Miscellaneous

Whatever man, "your day in court" is way overrated anyways

So uhm, not sure if you've heard, but the economy is kinda fucked.

And now it's taking a bite out of crime, as it were, as criminal defendants in Maryland could see themselves going free without a trial. See, folks are entitled to lawyers and if you can't afford one, you get a public defender. You've heard this spiel on TV procedurals a ton of times. Anyway, in Maryland, there used to be an arrangement so that outside attorneys would come in to represent folks in multiple-defendant cases. But the funding for that program is dry. So now, the public defender's office is saying it may not be able to appoint individual defenders where there are multiple defendants requesting separate attorneys (and pro bono representation can only do so much).

One possible result of this would be dismissal, because of that whole guaranteed lawyer shit.

Here's what I don't get. If Congress can pass some shitty bailout legislation and garbage like the Patriot Act when faced with crisis, why not combine the two, and just pass an amendment killing the constitutional right to counsel. Problem solved!

(Thanks to reader Amanda H. for pointing out this story.)

Full post as published by Quiz Law on October 09, 2008 (boomark / email).