Criminal Law

MT: right to counsel, nickel and dimed

Posted on August 12, 2008
From the Missoulian:Sheriff, public defenders at odds over free callsAfter allowing toll-free telephone calls between Missoula County jail inmates and their public defenders for more than two years, Sheriff Mike McMeekin says lost revenue has forced the arrangement to cease...

"It's lawyers, but, you know... they really care"

Posted on August 11, 2008
Courtesy of "Mad Men," a show I didn't know about, possibly because when it went off the air, I was 4: "The Defenders":The Defenders was American television's seminal legal drama, and perhaps the most socially-conscious series the medium has ever seen...

TN: ?had you wanted God to send you a boss, He would have sent you Ross?

Posted on August 10, 2008
From Tennessean.com: Metro's public defender dead after accident The Davidson County public defender who created a ?progressive? legal representation system, mentored scores of attorneys and was a dedicated family man died Saturday. Ross Alderman, 56, was hit by a car in Williamson County while riding a motorcycle, an activity he enjoyed for years...

ID: hellbent defendant, carwreck ahead

Posted on August 08, 2008
At this point, I just want to turn away for a while from the unfolding Joseph Duncan death penalty pro se debacle. If you're interested, Betsy Z. Russell of the Spokesman-Review's Eye on Boise blog has your best running coverage.

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ID: "pushing for justice for 12 years"

Posted on August 07, 2008
From the Idaho Statesman:Convicted killer, mom of victim seek justice - Chris Tapp says he didn't rape and kill Angie Dodge in 1996; Carol Dodge just wants to know who else was involvedPushing for answers in the 1996 rape and murder of 18-year-old Angie Raye Dodge are two people serving life sentences: the man who confessed to involvement in the crime and the victim's mother...

ID: in for a half-penny, in for a pound

Posted on August 07, 2008
From KBCI:Lawyers, judge clash in Duncan's murder sentencingJury selection hardly resumed in Joseph Duncan's murder sentencing when his former defense team asked to be released. It ignited a fiery exchange that ended the day at 11:00 a.m.Federal defender Judy Clarke said, ?We're not gunslingers or mouthpieces, we're counselors...

WA: "sometimes 130 to 240 cases in a 2 hour period"

Posted on August 07, 2008
From KIMA:Public Defenders Office Deals With BacklogDan Fessler runs the Yakima County Department of Assigned Counsel. They're better known as the Public Defenders. Attorneys there handle all defendants who can't afford a lawyer; both adults and juveniles...

ID: a spate of Duncan orders today before penalty phase

Posted on August 06, 2008
From the Spokesman's Eye on Boise:* Judge orders closed courtroom, media to appealA federal judge has ordered that the courtroom be closed when the sole surviving victim of killer Joseph Duncan testifies ? even though the child apparently will be testifying from another room by closed-circuit television...

ID: "standby counsel" means standby counsel, except when it doesn't

Posted on August 05, 2008
From the Spokesman-Review's Eye on Boise:Judge: Standby counsel must do voir direU.S. District Judge Edward Lodge has ruled that Joseph Duncan?s standby counsel must conduct voir dire... for him if he requests them to do so. Duncan?s attorneys, who are now standby counsel because he?s elected to act as his own attorney, had objected that by taking on that role, they?d violate his right to self-representation...

ID: you don't need a weatherman

Posted on August 03, 2008
From the Spokesman-Review:Duncan's new role seen as liabilityWhen Joseph Duncan takes over as his own attorney in his upcoming death penalty sentencing hearings, it'll change the nature of the proceedings, experts say ? and make the confessed multiple murderer much more likely to get the death penalty...

ID: Alisha Murphy murder verdict questioned

Posted on August 01, 2008
From the Twin Falls Times-News:Murphy's attempt to overturn murder conviction moves on - Scientist says consulting several experts could have changed outcome of trialAlisha Ann Murphy always said she didn't kill her husband... and has tried to overturn her own conviction for years...

"Buzz 3 times when you?ve reached a verdict"

Posted on August 01, 2008
From Irrationalblog:What I learned on a jury# Public defenders are scary, cold-hearted women.# The district attorney looks like this kid Ed that I know...

WA: the wrong sort of love from the bench

Posted on August 01, 2008
From Eye on Olympia:When a "Law and Order" script collides with "The Office"...The state Commission on Judicial Conduct today decided to censure -- or officially call on the carpet for a in-person reprimand -- former Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Collen Hartl...

"Don't know what kind of jury these lawyers wanted, but it wouldn't be a cinematic one"

Posted on July 31, 2008
In "this real-life adaptation of Twelve Angry Men," Muffin MacGuffin lists a factor that might keep a person from getting cast as one of the jurors: both my parents are public defenders...

CA: feist

Posted on July 30, 2008
From the Vacaville Reporter:Feisty public defender leavingSince he came to Solano County more than two years ago, Chief Deputy Public Defender Michael Ogul has infuriated prosecutors, nettled judges and been a passionate advocate for his clients. On Friday, the 52-year-old defense attorney sat in his Fairfield office amid stacks of bulging boxes in preparation for another move, this time to the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office in San Jose...

ID: Duncan pro se, Judy Clarke standby counsel in DP penalty phase

Posted on July 29, 2008
From the Idaho Statesman:Judge: Joseph Duncan to represent himself - His defense team will take over if Duncan cannot adequately defend himself at his death penalty hearing, Lodge saysA man who kidnapped two Idaho children and murdered one of them in 2005 is allowed to represent himself at his death penalty hearing, a federal judge decided Monday...

MT: "a uniformity of quality from Ekalaka to Eureka"

Posted on July 27, 2008
From the Great Falls Tribune:State's public defender overhaul earns KudosTwo years after Montana overhauled its system for defending the poor in court ? partly in response to an ACLU lawsuit ? state officials and ACLU leaders say they've seen a major improvement...

WA: justice 64 years delayed

Posted on July 27, 2008
Overdue exoneration, and a vignette of a younger Leon Jaworski as an unethical prosecutor, from KING 5 News:Army apologizes to WWII Fort Lawton soldiersSixty-four years after black soldiers were wrongly court-martialed at Seattle's Fort Lawton, the U...

"A very pleasant picture of a man who committed a very serious crime"

Posted on July 27, 2008
From Bryon Houlgrave's photojournalism blog:Jailhouse portraitsDo you remember your best school picture pose? Today I shot the pretrial hearing of a man charged with sexually assaulting an 8-year-old girl...Click the link, then scroll down for the photo.

WA: "there's your epitaph"

Posted on July 25, 2008
From the Olympian: ?Cowboy? Mike gets 48 years for rape, murder Calling him a "truly dangerous" man, a Thurston County judge sentenced "Cowboy" Mike Braae on Thursday to nearly 48 years in prison for the 2001 rape and murder of a Lacey woman. Superior Court Judge Richard Strophy...

ID: Indiana v. Edwards, meet Joseph Duncan

Posted on July 24, 2008
From the Spokesman-Review:Decision could affect Duncan caseA June U.S. Supreme Court decision limiting the right of mentally ill defendants to represent themselves in court could affect the case of Joseph Duncan... Though he has prominent capital defense lawyers assigned to represent him, Duncan told U...

UT: "I hope it works out for you, Mr. Ragsdale"

Posted on July 24, 2008
In honor of Pioneer Day, here's some Utah p.d. news from the Salt Lake Tribune:Ragsdale case gets more time - Defense team given two months to prepare while prosecution ponders option of death penaltyProsecutors were given two more months to decide whether they will pursue the death penalty against David Ragsdale, who is accused of shooting his wife to death outside her Lehi church building in January...

SD: "Letting"?

Posted on July 24, 2008
From South Dakota Watch and Epp Law Report:Letting Lawyers See Inmates: Another State v. Minnehaha Co. Issue?I?m sitting in the waiting area of the Jameson Annex at the SD State Prison, cooling my heels, waiting to see a client. Another attorney is also there, talking to people in white shirts ? officers ? at the prison...

Toyota pious

Posted on July 23, 2008
On display today in the Family and Juvenile Court parking lot: a bumper sticker proclaiming "I DON'T SHOP AT WALMART" on the back of a shiny Prius (it's a popular accessory for this town's Volvo's and BMW's too).That's bound to enlighten the families of my clients, who own the primer-gray beaters in the rest of the parking lot, and who don't know how they're going to pay the bill for detention and groceries and gas this month.

Archaeologists of human souls

Posted on July 22, 2008
From the Lehigh Valley Morning Call:New specialists delve deep to keep convicts off death row - Mitigating circumstances: Experts in showing why killers should live are now crucial in capital casesMitigation experts, who can be social workers, educators, psychologists or anthropologists, are becoming crucial as state appellate courts and the U...

Ex-YU: he's finished

Posted on July 22, 2008
Even a public defender can celebrate the arrest of a war criminal; I'm foregoing the usual "alleged," having visited the scene of some of his crimes. See you in The Hague, pendejo. Finding Karad?i? and East Ethnia are good English-language blog sources for Karad?i?-iana.

Dogs at work

Posted on July 21, 2008
Okay, so in all the excitement of the McChord air show, I went and took dog pictures, of this fine schutzhund in particular. This military working dog reminded me of some fine working pups I once met who are a little closer to my workplace.They're the true Courthouse Dogs, and now they have their own Northwest - based website, dedicated to "support(ing) the use of well - trained assistance dogs that provide emotional support to all involved in the criminal justice system...

The fabulous thunderbirds

Posted on July 21, 2008
Joe and I went to the local airbase today to take in the USAF Thunderbirds and a few other planes.

Law student angst

Posted on July 19, 2008
From Ask Metafilter:How can I use my law degree and still like my life?I came to law school because I wanted to be a public interest lawyer - I like helping people. I have one year left before I graduate... I have spent the last two years learning about indigent defense and working at the public defender's office...

ID: LWOP x 2 for Mark Lankford

Posted on July 19, 2008
From the AP wire:Lankford gets life for murder convictionsA man who killed two people in northern Idaho in 1983 has been sentenced to life in prison. Second District Judge John H. Bradbury sentenced Mark Lankford on Thursday to two consecutive life sentences without possibility of parole...

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