Public Defender Dude: Criminal Law

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Public Defender Dude

The rantings of a Public Defender constantly fighting against society's pervasive Police Industrial Complex.

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Last Entry: August 12, 2009 at 01:05:00

A DNA Exoneration close to home.

Posted on August 12, 2009
An amazing thing happened in my courthouse yesterday: http://blogs.cwsl.edu/news/2009/08/10/california-innocence-project-obtains-reversal-of-12-year-old-murder-conviction/ Here is the text:"Today, 16 years to the day after the murder of Pamela Richards, San Bernardino County Judge Brian McCarville granted the California Innocence Project?s request to reverse the murder conviction of her husband William Richards...

Wow, what a long time

Posted on August 05, 2009
I have been very busy with life, so I haven't posted in 6 months. I see that PDDude hasn't posted either.I am very burned out with being a deputy public defender. I used to enjoy the job, but now I don't. Suffice to say that I am an employee, and an employee who has been taught to fear for his job...

The Meltdown Continues

Posted on January 02, 2009
Two articles sum up what's going on with the prison crisis in California. The prison crisis is best understood when we juxtapose our ridiculous sentencing policies, such as 3 Strikes, with our ongoing unreality of finances in California. They are both part and parcel of denial of reality by those who really run this state - the People of the State of California...

The Mental Health System

Posted on December 10, 2008
I mentioned in my last post, a month ago, that I am doing a new area of criminal defense. I'm still a PD, but I now handle those defendants who have been found Not Guilty by Reason of Inasanity (NGI), and are being held within the web of the criminal mental health system...

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Has it Really Been THAT Long?

Posted on November 16, 2008
Awesome election results. The senate races in Alaska, Minnesota, and Georgia are all still pending. I hope that Lieberman loses his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Panel, but I won't hold my breath.I haven't posted in months because I have been killing myself with work...

Deeper Musings About Sara Palin

Posted on September 08, 2008
The polls are shifting not so well for Obama (Tremors!) and there are lots and lots of theories. I am swayed by the idea that Sara Palin is having an impact on the race. Conservatives love her, and they are rallying around McCain in response. I will give an additional critique of Palin to add to what PD Dude has said...

Musings about the Sarah Palin thing

Posted on September 02, 2008
It feels a little like shooting fish in a barrel, or piling on, or something of the sort, but there is just so many places to go with this Sarah Palin pick as McCain's VP pick, that I just don't know where to begin. And I just can't leave it alone, because some of it is too glaring...

About the Aquittal of Former marine Nazario

Posted on September 02, 2008
Just before the weekend started, the federal jury in the trial of former Luis Nazario found the former marine not guilty. Good for him, I suppose. As a public defender, I enjoy hearing when the DA loses a case. I like it when someone is found not guilty, and a jury stands up for the rule of law...

A Not-So-Quick Rant on the Drug War in America

Posted on August 29, 2008
I watched Obama's acceptance speech last night and I thought it was wonderful. The best I have ever seen. Just now, I started thinking about a few things. How about a brief, and I do mean brief, moral discussion? About the drug war? Please, please, let there be some law and order types to sign on and discuss this...

Only in California - Pregnancy is Great Bodily Injury

Posted on August 29, 2008
So California has a rule which says that if you commit a crime against someone and cause them great bodily injury, then you get an enhancement. The law says that it has to be a significant injury, and has to be intentionally caused. Here's the rub, while it only adds 3 years to a sentence in most circumstances, in the last 14 years, it has also made any crime a "strike" (you all have heard of 3 strikes, right?)...

I certainly like Biden more than Palin

Posted on August 29, 2008
Give me a break, does McCain think that Hillary supporters were so desperate for a woman that they'd vote for him if he chose one as VP? Even if she's anti-abortion? Even if, prior to her unimpressive 2 years as governor of Alaska she was a mayor of a town of 8,000? At least we don't have to hear McCain talk about how experienced he is for the job anymore...

I do like Joe Biden

Posted on August 28, 2008
I guess it's just the contrarian in me, even to a fellow PD. Sorry Dennis, I know he can be ponderous, and this really has nothing to do with strong policy or principle issues, but I do like him. Was he Obama's best choice? Who knows, there's others I might've chosen, but he certainly could've chosen much worse, and some of the names out there didn't thrill me...

I don't like Joe Biden

Posted on August 23, 2008
There - I said it. I'm still going to vote for Obama, but I will do so less enthusiastically.Biden, also known as the "Senator from MBNA" because of his overwhelming support for the credit card industry (and banks and insurance companies, etc.), is a rotten choice for a "change candidate" like Obama says he is...

Whoa - There is a GOOD Initiative on the Ballot

Posted on August 23, 2008
My last post was about Proposition 6, on the 11-4-08 ballot. It is called the "Son of Three Strikes," and it is bad, bad, bad. Well, there is another bad initiative on the ballot, and it is likewise bad. Proposition 9, also known as "Marsey's Law," was created and supported initially by Henry Nicholas, who gave more than $4 million to get the ball rolling...

Here it Comes Again - the "Son of Three Strikes" - Prop. 6, is on the November Ballot

Posted on August 21, 2008
They are calling it the "Stealth Initiative" because no one, not even me, saw it coming. Here's an article on Prop. 6, on November's ballot: http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=d01148783101be65ceadfc3d57ee9944Proposition 6 is called the "Safe Neighborhood Act" and it is a doozey...

A Shout Out to DalyKos

Posted on August 21, 2008
This is my favorite website. http://www.dailykos.com/I go there whenever I have a chance. DailyKos will keep you informed about all things political, and there is a fresh, progressive spin on what is said. There are multiple writers, not just the Markos Moulitsas the site is named after...

More Speculating about Phil Spector

Posted on August 20, 2008
Iona Trailer responded to my last post, and I was writing a response to her. But it got too long, so I decided to make it into a new post altogether.I am not privy to any particular information about the Spector case - I only know what I read in the news...

Speculating about Phil Spector

Posted on August 19, 2008
It's that time again. We have another celebrity trial coming up in southern California, and it's time to focus all our attention on this trial. Phil Spector will be on trial again in October, after an appellate court turned down his bid for a continuance...

The Politics of Judging

Posted on August 12, 2008
First, great posts by PD Dude. I slacked off a bit and he came roaring back. His DNA posts were awesome. In keeping with what I wanted to do with re-vitalizing this web, I will now do a short post about something, with the emphasis on short. I want to get SOMETHING down before other stuff in life takes me away...

Hamdan Verdict

Posted on August 10, 2008
WOW!Did I mention how startled I was by the verdict? Some have said that this is an indictment of the whole notion of holding some of the people that they have as enemy combatants. Others have said that this vindicates Bush's tribunal idea. Hmmmm....

A great suggestion from a friend

Posted on August 03, 2008
I am at a baseball game with a friend and his wife tonight. The wife finds out I'm a public defender, and she actually has a great understanding of what we do, and a lot of respect for it as well (ie - no questions like: "how do you deal with those guilty scumbags?")...

More things DNA

Posted on July 26, 2008
As evidenced by the scintillating discussion about my last post on DNA (none), one can surmise that perhaps DNA is not the most fascinating table conversation in the world. A pity, actually, because it really is so fascinating, and there is actually quite a bit of controversy about it...

Playing games with DNA

Posted on July 21, 2008
This is some complex stuff, DNA, and it gets even more complex when you try to bamboozle juries with what it means - actually, maybe it makes it less complex, but unraveling the bamboozlement gets complex. Here's what I'm talking about.The Los Angeles Times has reported on a phenomena that those of us who have gone through more intensive DNA trainings know about, something called the Arizona Database situation...

Reflections upon the law and Democracy

Posted on July 18, 2008
Neither I nor PD Dude have had many comments about our discussions about initiatives, which is really a shame. His earlier post was awesome, and mine was a riff about Prop. 13. One problem with talking about initiatives is that they are boring. Most voters are normal people, and normal people just don't understand the inner workings of government...

NY Times Article Attempts to Undermine Exclusionary Rule

Posted on July 18, 2008
The exclusionary rule is one that says if the police violate the 4th amendment of the Constitution (against illegal searches and seizures), then the remedy is the exclusion of that evidence. Sounds simple, and drastic, enough.Practically speaking, it almost never happens...

Proposition 13, the Scourge of Propositions (and a little bit about the CCC)

Posted on July 17, 2008
I was going to respond to PD Dude's excellent post, but my response got so long that I had to create a new post instead. I agree with EVERYTHING PD Dude said in his post. But more attention needs to be focused on the big "successful" proposition, Prop...

The Proposition - The Scourge of California

Posted on July 13, 2008
Some of the posts below, and the comments to them, have brought up what I think is California's greatest scourge - the initiative.Originally, this was created by progressives at the start of the 20th Century as a balance to the entrenched conservative interests that ran the state up until then...

I was going to write a response to earlier responses. . .

Posted on July 09, 2008
. . . But it got so long that I have to make it into another post.First, thank you all for the wonderful comments. I apologize for the clerical errors in my other posts, but if I don't catch clerical error immediately after I've written the post, I can only modify it for a short time after I post it...

Three Strikes, The meltdown of California's prisons, and all that jazz

Posted on July 08, 2008
These are two separate events and phenomena, but they have truly coalesced together. California already had a booming prison population before Three Strikes, and that population has continued to increase. Likewise, sentencing law in California had already increased greatly by the time the 1994 Three Strikes campaign began...

Skelly at Arbitrary and Capricious slammed me today.

Posted on July 07, 2008
I'm pretty sure that I had it coming, but it was my first post and all. Check out his blog at http://skellywright.blogspot.com/. He slammed me because of my post a couple of days ago. He didn't like what I said about "old liberals," probably because he considers himself one...

A DA finally gets his comeuppance. Let's hope it's a trend.

Posted on July 07, 2008
Prior to contributing to this blog I wrote a number of replies to what others had said about the criminal justice system. I am a public defender who strongly believes in the adversary system of criminal justice, so long as it is tempered with reality...

What is going on here?

Posted on July 06, 2008
Thank you for the introduction, PDDude. I have always been a fan of this site. I could criticize you for not posting more, but I know what it is like to be working as a public defender. For those who don't, let me tell you a litle bit about what it is like to be a PD...

Has it really been 6 Months?

Posted on July 04, 2008
I have no idea why I don't post for long periods of time, like I have here. It's not that I don't have things to talk about - no one has accused me of being short of things to talk about. I certainly am busy, but not too busy to write about what I'm thinking (it doesn't take that long)...

Hey, I won a Rodney!!!

Posted on January 03, 2008
I just found out from Skelly over at Arbitrary & Capricious that I won a Rodney (talk about a lack of respect, I didn't even know I was nominated!). Hey, I'm psyched. I mean, just because I'm a Public Defender doesn't mean I don't like getting recognized for doing a good job...

NY Times Editorial Says It All

Posted on January 01, 2008
Regulars here know that I've written about our country's shameful human rights record over the last 7 years, as we've raced to the bottom in areas such as torture, privacy, indefinite detentions for people without meaningful rights to be heard, and things of the like...

LA Area DA seeks to elevate DAs, denigrate defense lawyers - by initiative

Posted on December 20, 2007
This is via the Los Angeles Metropolitan News (a legal newspaper), the head of the LA District Attorney's Association, Steve Ipsen, has proposed one of the most pernicious, insidious and unconstitutional state initiatives that I can ever remember seeing...

Why are ex-Public Defenders so often bad judges

Posted on December 15, 2007
I always get excited when someone from my office makes it to the bench (someone good, that is - if the person's a total political tool, then it's not so exciting). It means that finally, someone with our perspective is sitting on the bench. So, I have to ask myself all of the time this question: Why do ex-PDs make such uniformly bad judges...

Remembering why I do this work

Posted on November 22, 2007
Alright, it's been a long time since I've posted. To those online and offline friends who've told me "what's going on?" I can only say, thank you for encouraging me. Work has been very busy of late, and management at our office has really become unhinged in a bad way (it's all relative, I guess...

Spector Jury Hangs

Posted on September 30, 2007
I know I'm late on this one, but it certainly deserves a comment. The Phil Spector jury has hung, which wasn't looking like a huge surprise as the jury's questions became more and more pointed. A few thoughts.First of all, I certainly can understand why Judge Fidler didn't want a hung jury...

Larry Craig and Police Officer Opinion Testimony

Posted on September 04, 2007
One of the areas that has held public fascination in the Larry Craig situation is the vagueness of the charges and allegations against him. Put simply - what did he actually do wrong - tapping a foot and reaching with his hand? He clearly did not break any established and obvious laws by those actions (not unless laws have become so over broad and burdensome that they've even caught me, Public Defender Dude, by surprise)...

The Lewd Conduct of Senator Larry Craig

Posted on August 28, 2007
It takes a juicy arrest like this of a prominent gay bashing Republican to drag me out of my torpor and get me posting again. The arrest and conviction of US Senator Larry Craig, a Republican from conservative South Dakota (didn't they just pass a law criminalizing all abortions?) is one of those crystallizing moments that happens with increasing frequency in society - usually the moments are crystallized by Republicans, because they have gained much of their political power by riding moral crusades and against crime...

It's About Time - A Fair Legal Talk Show Host

Posted on July 25, 2007
Finally, an antidote to the facists out there like Nancy Grace. You should check out Jami Floyd and her show "Best Defense" on Court TV. She's apparently an ex-Public Defender from the Bay Area (although that appears to be a very small sliver of her bio - she still has it in her bones), but not afraid to say that someone's guilty...

Client Blunders

Posted on July 16, 2007
I've been getting hit lately with huge blunders by my clients - that is, blunders my clients make as my clients, not blunders they make that turn them in to my clients. I guess that I'm not down about it, even though it is resulting in much longer sentences for them, which occur on my watch...

PDs Better than Court Appointed Lawyers?

Posted on July 14, 2007
There's a new study out which compared how defendants did in the federal system over a several year period when represented by federal public defenders and by court appointed (or "Panel") lawyers.Now, no disrespect to any of my panel brethren here, but the study reached the conclusion that public defenders are better...

The Libby "Commutation" OUTRAGE

Posted on July 02, 2007
I had vowed that I wasn't going to blog about this one months ago (because I knew it was going to happen as soon as the guilty verdicts came down), and yet, I sit here in such a rage right now about the Libby "commutation" (I write commutation in quotes because if there is a person alive who doesn't believe that this is a precursor to a full pardon after the election, then I have a bridge to sell you - or better yet, a prior promise by the president to let the case "and it's appeals" run it's course)...

I want defend cops - I'll never lose

Posted on June 28, 2007
Maybe if I get tired of representing of losing trials at some point, I'll stop representing the poor people who did not choose to go the police academy when they were 19. It is apparent that it is close to impossible to convict a police officer.Let this be a message to any client I represent in the future who says to me "the cops are lying, I want to go to trial!" that jurors, like the courts, and the rest of the government, tends to give blanket immunity for police misconduct...

Has Libby's sentence created a new group of Right-wing civil libertarians?

Posted on June 17, 2007
I know it grows old, my harping on the right wing's constant attempt to be tougher and tougher on crime, to put as many people in jail as possible, to run campaigns on anger and fear, resulting in a 25 year growth of the prison industrial complex that is unprecedented in our history...

Bye, bye, Nifong

Posted on June 16, 2007
Astounding as it is, the state bar of North Carolina has disbarred a prosecutor for ethical violations in prosecuting a case. Suffice it to say, getting a prosecutor disbarred for doing their core duties (as opposed to doing something unethical outside their duties, such as committing a crime on their own time) in an unethical manner is an unusual occurrence...

Paris Hilton - Political Prisoner?

Posted on June 08, 2007
Alright, I have no sympathy for Paris Hilton. I think that she has spent a life of absolute debauchery brought upon by her extreme wealth, where nothing has ever been asked of her, only that she have a pulse. By her good looks and her money, she has become, to some, a celebrity...

Ashcroft the hero of the 4th Amendment???

Posted on May 20, 2007
Over at Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall has given voice to some of the murmuring about whether former Attorney General John Ashcroft is a 4th Amendment hero in light of former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony before Congress last week...

What can we make of the Duke Lacrosse Rape case?

Posted on April 17, 2007
I don't have a huge amount of time to blog about this right now, but the case clearly cries out for a comment or two from a public defender perspective. Let me make it perfectly clear. Had these gentlemen been from a poor minority neighborhood, had they played a less genteel sport than lacrosse (like, say, basketball), there is a very good likelihood that these people would've gone on trial a long time ago, or at the very least they would have taken a deal on the case...

"Prior Bad Acts" and the Phil Spector Trial

Posted on April 05, 2007
It is an axiom of the law of evidence in criminal law, for centuries, that one's character cannot be used against one in a prosecution. The theory is that people should be convicted of crimes based on the evidence of these crimes, and not based on their character...

Gang Prosecutions - Politically Correct Prosecutions going after Low-hanging fruit

Posted on March 31, 2007
I've written about it before, but it's become ever more absurd where I practice law. As noted in this Los Angeles Times article, the Los Angeles DA is filing ever more cases with "gang allegations" against people, no matter what the case, increasing exponentially the amount of time people are getting in prison...

6 Month Hiatus - Over?

Posted on March 25, 2007
I can't believe it's been 6 months since I've last blogged. Things had slowed down for me dramatically, mostly because I've been so busy (it's good to know for all of you taxpayers out there that Public Defender Dude has been earning his keep while eating at the public trough)...

Nancy Grace drives mother of kidnapped infant to kill herself

Posted on September 13, 2006
I've often thought that Nancy Grace is just an evil witch, the worst of the worst that prosecutors have to offer, coupled with that intensive desire of the media to sentionalize any issue that will make them more money and get them more viewers - people and constitutional rights be damned...

LA Times Runs Series on Norwalk Public Defender

Posted on September 05, 2006
The Los Angeles Times is running a 5 part series that is apparently focused entirely on a PD in the Norwalk Branch of the LA County Public Defender's Office. You can read the article here, and from there you can find the other articles in the series. Today's is part 2...

A few thoughts on John Karr

Posted on August 30, 2006
Alright, so we know that this guy was a nut, and that he had nothing to do with killing Jon Benet Ramsey, and clearly that the media circus surrounding his arrest and extradition was among the lower moments in an low profession (at least the tabloid media, which is what most of the media turns into when confronted with something like this - lord knows they don't want to be left behind by the tabloids as happened in the past)...

The President is NOT above the law!!! - NSA program struck down

Posted on August 17, 2006
I want a terrorist to his this country as much as the next guy, which is to say, not at all. I also want our country to have something important to preserve - freedom, lawful institutions, law and order, democracy, silly little things like that. For the past 6 years those concepts have given way to doing away with the evildoers...