Criminal Law

Hiatus

Posted on August 01, 2009
The blog is five years old now. It's had a few good years, and a few years of gentle steady decline. It's given me a place to post about representation, depression, transitions, and a few odd obsessions (and post about the kid and dogs and cats). It's made me new friends and brought me into contact with some quite remarkable lawyers, investigators, law professors and others (if I skipped a link, look for yourself in the blogroll)...

"From Time Out to Hard Time"

Posted on July 29, 2009
From the New York Times:12 and in PrisonThe editorial was prompted by the release of ?From Time Out to Hard Time: Young Children in the Adult Criminal Justice System? by Michele Deitch of the LBJ School at the University of Texas (homeland of Grits for Breakfast)...

UT: cost cutters 1, indigent defense 0

Posted on July 29, 2009
From the Ogden Standard-Examiner:No more Weber attorney group for indigentAfter four decades defending the indigent, the Weber County Public Defenders Association will be dismantled. The Weber County Commission is moving in another direction by the end of the year in providing legal services to defendants who can?t afford an attorney...

WA: the war at home

Posted on July 27, 2009
From the Olympian:A second chance for vets - New Program: County Veterans Court helps those in trouble with PTSDThurston County Veterans Court offers a second chance to current and retired service members who commit crimes while struggling with war-related psychological wounds, notably PTSD and traumatic brain injuries...

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"Trial it is then"

Posted on July 20, 2009
Brother PD Scoplaw speaks a weary truth:Denial, Perspective, Jail House LawyeringI'm not talking about innocence or guilt - I'm talking about the pratical realities of what's going to happen in a court of law...

CA: don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge

Posted on July 20, 2009
From the Ventura County Star:Public Defender's Office close to edge - Any death penalty cases will trigger need for more help, says Dammeyer I just liked the message in the headline, I guess.

Hope for community corrections

Posted on July 16, 2009
In this month's Washington Monthly:Jail Break - How smarter parole and probation can cut the nation?s incarceration rateIf we want to end the era of mass incarceration and replace it with a regime of less punishment and less crime, drug testing is only one of the ways to apply the central lesson of HOPE ("Hawaii?s Opportunity Probation with Enforcement"): that clearly communicated threats of swift, certain punishment really can change behavior, even when the punishment is modest...

CA: East Bay "resident elocutionist" retires

Posted on July 11, 2009
From the Contra Costa Times:Contra Costa public defender retires after 35-year career speaking for indigent defendantsIn his 10 years as Contra Costa County's top public defender, David Coleman ruffled the feathers of more than a few prosecutors, yet they say they'll miss him...

ID: felony murder rule results in remand

Posted on July 11, 2009
From the Times-News:High court overturns conviction in '05 shotgun slaying - Gambrel drug charges could complicate Pina retrialThe conviction of Juan Carlos Fuentes Pina, one of two men convicted for the slaying of Jesse Naranjo, was vacated on appeal by the Idaho Supreme Court on Wednesday...

ID: a life of conflicts, a murderous rage

Posted on July 11, 2009
From the Times-News:Kolestani gets 18 years to life - Transgender refugee admitted killing partner last yearA tearful Iranian refugee was sentenced on Friday in Twin Falls 5th District Court to 18 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a long-time partner in the face almost a year ago...

Kid-centered, client-centered

Posted on July 07, 2009
Here's a link to the National Juvenile Defender Center's new publication, Role of Juvenile Defense Counsel in Delinquency Court (pdf file), in case you ever find yourself in the role of juvenile defense counsel in delinquency court.

Methland = USA

Posted on July 06, 2009
Oelwein, Iowa, described in Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town by Nick Reding, gets the Manhattan condescension treatment via New York Times book review:The madness stalking tiny, defenseless Oelwein may eventually come for all of us...

40-some years in 20-some songs

Posted on July 03, 2009
Artifacts excavated in response to this meme from Bliss:Down In The Boondocks - Billy Joe Royal: the earliest pop song I can remember. Loved the word "boondocks" - had no idea what it meant.Mr. Tambourine Man - Bob Dylan / The Byrds (tie): with an older brother and four older sisters, songs like this, "Puff The Magic Dragon," and "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" were my nursery rhymes...

"Experienced lawyers lead the way"

Posted on July 01, 2009
From Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, an interview with Jean Berman, executive director of the International Senior Lawyers Project:We've done a number of projects involving assisting criminal defense lawyers for the poor. In Eastern Europe we sent lawyers to Bulgaria, Lithuania, Mongolia and Ukraine to help set up the first public defender offices there...

If my clients were crime fighters

Posted on July 01, 2009
From cartoonist K. Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant, " Mystery Solving Teens."

WA: new chief PD in Port Orchard

Posted on June 30, 2009
From the Kitsap Sun:Kitsap Hires New Top Public DefenderKitsap County has hired a Wenatchee attorney to head its division of public defense... Clarke W. Tibbits, 41, currently a partner in a private practice, has worked as a criminal defense attorney in district and superior courts, as well as for private and indigent clients...

ID: Monday's judgment day for Canyon Co indigent defense

Posted on June 28, 2009
From Nampa / Caldwell's Idaho Press-Tribune:Commissioners will pick Canyon public defenderCanyon County commissioners will deliberate for the purpose of appointing a public defender Monday morning. They will choose from Virginia Bond, Mark Mimura, Scott Fouser and Chad Gulstrom...

Joe is 90 today

Posted on June 26, 2009
Happy birthday to my father.

VA & ID: volunteering for DP a "fatal attraction"

Posted on June 25, 2009
From the Charlottesville Daily Progress, June 21:Death request raises ethical, legal questionsSomewhere in the Charlottesville Office of the Commonwealth?s Attorney sits a plea agreement that could lead to the execution of a city man accused of killing an 11-year-old boy...

Joe is 10 today

Posted on June 23, 2009
Happy Birthday, son.

WA: client in court makes a run for it - what would you do?

Posted on June 19, 2009
From the Spokesman-Review:Municipal court brawl leads to arrestA brawl that began when a man tried fleeing a courtroom this morning ended with the man, a deputy and three attorneys falling onto a bench of bystanders, according to the Spokane County Sheriff?s Office...

ID: north side teens in attempted murder trouble

Posted on June 18, 2009
From the Twin Falls Times-News:Shoshone murder plot: Two boys remain jailed for safetyTwo Shoshone boys arrested last week in an alleged plot to kill a businessman and a police officer will stay in jail... after lawyers and family pleaded for their release...

AZ: "these people annoy me"

Posted on June 17, 2009
The Sloth Bear has been a p. d. for just a little while, but has developed some distinct likes and dislikes in clients:Categorizing InfuriantsIf you ever find yourself speaking with a public defender, try not to be any of these people...

WA: in Grant County, we can work it out

Posted on June 16, 2009
And now your Channeled Scablands update, from the Columbia Basin Herald:ACLU approves public defendersEPHRATA ? Grant County received approval for their public defense department from a monitor overseeing the county efforts to improve their legal services after the 2005 settlement agreement with the American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU)...

All this, and a baby moose!

Posted on June 15, 2009
It's public defender intern season. Here's a report from Alaska, from Justin of Baylor Law School:Aside from the legal community, Alaska is a great place to intern because of the numerous opportunities for outdoor activity here... It?s not unusual to see a moose or two on your way to work, and sometimes they even come right up to the office.

Eternal rest, Willie

Posted on June 12, 2009
A client of mine suicided Tuesday night. Willie was a gifted, funny teenager, a natural leader and an artful dodger. Other kids liked him, probation officers liked him. I loved going to bat for him after the times when he'd screw up, and he'd light up like July 4 when things broke our way in court...

HI: "you can't subject the Constitution to budget cuts"

Posted on June 08, 2009
When it comes to cuts, things are no different in the islands; from the Maui News:Furloughs leave defendants in a bind - Public defender office closures affecting courtroom schedulesThe Office of the Public Defender, which includes a dozen attorneys on Maui, will be shut down three Fridays each month to comply with state worker furloughs required by Gov...

Thanks, ACLU! Thanks, AP!

Posted on June 04, 2009
Feeling the love in the Washington Post:Nationwide, public defender offices are in crisis"If you can't afford an attorney, and you fall into the criminal justice system, you are really, really screwed," said Demetrius Thomas of the New York American Civil Liberties Union...

AB: ?them kids should be strung up by their necks?

Posted on June 03, 2009
From the Toronto Globe and Mail:?Completely random? killing shocks Alberta - Within hours of escaping youth home, 14-year-olds charged in double-homicideThe two teens had been missing from Bosco Homes, a rural treatment centre for troubled youth east of Edmonton, for less than 15 minutes before the RCMP were called in to track down the runaways...

ID: Kolestani - "I murdered Ehsan"

Posted on June 02, 2009
From the Times-News:Refugee from Iran admits to murder(Nastaran /) Majid Kolestani fought to wear women's clothes during a murder trial, but in the end, won't dress for it at all. The 42-year-old transgender Iranian refugee who identifies as a woman pleaded guilty on Monday in Twin Falls 5th District Court to first-degree murder in a plea agreement that will likely send Kolestani to prison for 18 years to life...

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