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California Parole Violators Right to Legal Counsel Restored by Federal Judge

By Walin & Klarich

The voters in California in November, 2008 approved a new ?victims rights? initiative that stated that only in rare cases would a person facing a parole violation be entitled to a skilled criminal defense lawyer in Los Angeles or another city in California to defend him or her from the allegations. What this meant is that in the vast majority of cases, parolees were facing being returned to prison without the right to have a lawyer defend them. However, federal Judge Lawrence K. Karlton has ruled that this provision of the new law is unconstitutional. He recently ruled that pursuant to an agreement entered into in 2004 by the State of California, all persons facing parole violations must be provided with a lawyer to defend them when they are facing a parole violation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Southern California Criminal Defense Blog on April 15, 2009 (boomark / email).