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"My Cousin Vinny" cited by 7th Cir.

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Lawyer jailed for contempt during trial was not shown to have denied defendant of effective assistance of counsel because counsel was sleep deprived in the county jail. Sutherland v. Gaetz, 08-1404 (7th Cir. September 14, 2009). Footnote 1: Defense counsel’s obstinate behavior and the court’s exasperation with it may be reminiscent for some of the contentious interplay between the fictional characters of Vincent LaGuardia Gambini and Judge Chamberlain Haller in the film “My Cousin Vinnie.” On three separate occasions during trial, Judge Haller held Vinnie in contempt and, each time, made him spend the overnight recess in jail. However, unlike defense counsel here, Vinnie, a New York lawyer struggling to adapt to the rural-Alabama trial setting, found that the accommodations in jail offered the best night’s sleep he could find away from the Big Apple...continue to full post

Full post as published by Law Of Criminal Defense on September 18, 2009 (boomark / email).