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Criminal Law

Defending Those People

About life as a public defender, controversies at the U.S. Department of Justice, and other criminal law matters.

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Last Entry: August 06, 2009 at 01:25:00

Books lawyers should read

Posted on September 04, 2006
From the ABA's recently e-mailed newsletter. Besides the books by Dickens, Harper Lee and Anthonly Lewis, I've read the Dali Lama's book. I highly recommend them and look forward to making time to read some of these:Nasty People: How to Stop Being Hurt by Them Without Becoming One of Them by Jay Carter...

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Posted on August 23, 2006
Gotta love Radley Balko, and especially this wonderful posting on L.E.A.P.. You've seriously got to watch the video. It is astounding.

Slate Article Describes My Daily Struggle

Posted on June 05, 2006
Gotta check this article out:Gideon's SilenceWhatever happened to the right to counsel?By Alexandra NatapoffPosted Wednesday, May 31, 2006, at 5:35 PM ET Judge Arthur L. Hunter Jr. is fed up. The complete destruction of the public-defender system has left more than 1,000 people sitting in soggy New Orleans jails without access to lawyers...

Lock People Up Only When It Would Help

Posted on May 28, 2006
This article in the New York Times makes some good points about solving problems:Taking his cues from family therapy as well as from social ecology, which emphasizes that behavior is shaped by multiple aspects of the environment, Henggeler studies the ecosystem composed by family, neighborhood, schools, peer groups and the broader community...

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Props to Ken at Crim Law Blog : How can you defend those people?

Posted on May 22, 2006
A while ago I came back across this good post by Ken Lammers at Crim Law. I am sure that I've heard the term before, but Mr. Lammers motivated or inspired this blog's title. He's got a great post and a great response to the question, how can you defend those people?But I want to disagree with him in part...

Police Misconduct Solution: Black Boxes in Police Cars Recording Everything

Posted on May 20, 2006
Some police routinely lie, and prosecutors and judges buy it. These police are only caught when they get greedy and screw up. Competent lying cops ones can lie for a career and never get caught. Sure, a few judges will wise up and say "I don't believe a thing out of this cops mouth," but too often that doesn't happen...

Prosecutorial discretion

Posted on April 10, 2006
Mr. Steven Wells just posted a good article pointing out the structural bias of appeals, one reason why the state is always full of good case law. This can be a problem, particularly when judges (AKA former prosecutors) won't do anything to protect your client's rights unless you can point out a case on point an all four facts...

Cops behaving badly

Posted on April 06, 2006
Good thing David Feige is following this horrible situation where some cops in South Florida are simply out of control. It looks pretty widespread too.These ugly activities by these cops are a disgrace to not only all the other cops who aren't dirty, but to the citizens that they are sworn to serve...

Mentally ill in prison

Posted on April 01, 2006
I just watched the Frontline episode "The New Asylums" looked inside Ohio's prison mental health treatment. I had seen it before, it is always an eye-opening program, even to me, and I have fairly extensive experience with the mentally ill in several different criminal justice systems...

Good news in Washington State

Posted on March 28, 2006
A judge listened to the ACLU and struck down a modern day poll tax for those who have previously been in the justice system and have outstanding fines and court costs.

Value of death penalty

Posted on March 28, 2006
Does it really provide closure:Criminal trials and the promise of an execution offer a seemingly appealing mechanism to assign blame and channel rage. But many crime victims have reported that the endless repetition of their stories, the formal legal rules, and the years lost between appeals only serve to increase stress and delay healing...

Fixing societal problems, standing with the accused

Posted on March 21, 2006
According to the Times:[T]he huge pool of poorly educated black men are becoming ever more disconnected from the mainstream society, and to a far greater degree than comparable white or Hispanic men. Especially in the country's inner cities, the studies show, finishing high school is the exception, legal work is scarcer than ever and prison is almost routine, with incarceration rates climbing for blacks even as urban crime rates have declined...

Police complaint process

Posted on March 05, 2006
What's the deal with police who discourage reporting complaints that everyone (like Rumpole and David Feige) is talking about. The news reports:[O]n occasion, a police officer and a member of the public they serve don't see eye to eye, and the citizen feels a need to complain...

What do you tell a client?

Posted on March 05, 2006
I really enjoyed Skelly's not too old posting about advice to give to clients.It made me come up with advice for prosecutors, given my experience dealing with good and bad ones.Return calls. Seriously, I know you're busy, but so am I! I return all my calls as soon as I can, even for slow/no returners...

Keeping a positive outlook

Posted on March 05, 2006
As a public defender, my job is to be a constant optimist. "C'mon, my client deserves another chance!" is the chant. I really enjoy that part of work. It helps me stay idealistic. Perhaps PDs,are African at heart? It seems as if hope springs eternal on that continent:Where does such relentless optimism in the face of unyielding misery come from? One glance at the statistical profile of the continent's 900 million people will tell you that Africans can expect to live the shortest lives, earn the lowest incomes and suffer some of the worst misrule on the planet...

Getting around Gideon

Posted on February 26, 2006
Those of us working in the criminal justice system know of the trend for increasing fees, fines, court costs, supervision reimbursement, paying for probation/house arrest. Every politician can see the benefit of sticking it to criminals. However, the Times notes some problems:The sums raised by these ever-mounting fees are intended to help offset some of the enormous costs of operating the criminal justice system...

When Prosecutors Go Bad

Posted on February 20, 2006
I wonder how often prosecutor's lie and cheat to win, as this lawsuit seeks to uncover in New York. What does the lawsuit claim:The suit accuses prosecutors in some cases of presenting false testimony by witnesses about their deals for leniency in exchange for cooperation, according to a copy provided by the lawyer filing the suit...

Who are those people?

Posted on February 09, 2006
In my years of working in criminal courts all over this great nation, what sort of people have I defended? First, aren't they criminals? Well, I never represent a person guilty of the charge they rae facing, well except for sentencing, post-conviction motions, and appeals...

Law and Order Trial By Jury

Posted on January 14, 2006
I don't think I should watch court TV shows ever again. LOTBJ is a terrible show regarding legal ethics! From this first episode I watched, the defense attorney contrives a legal defense by treating his clients like idiots to be led around into unethical /perjurious behavior...

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