Archive for April, 2010
A witchhunt by men who molest the law
Apr 29th
[Update: She's been acquitted.] Raise your hand if you’ve never heard of Tonya Craft. I hadn’t either, until I stumbled across this post at change.org. Tonya Craft is the latest lightning rod in that modern day witch-hunt: the sex offender.
But, from all accounts, this isn’t a normal case. This is a shining example of the lengths people will go to, in order to brand someone a villain. The word sham is inadequate to describe the sheer rape of the law that is currently underway in Northwest Georgia at Craft’s trial.
There’s little doubt that a guilty verdict will fail on appeal. Yet Arnt and his fellow prosecutor Len Gregor seem intent on achieving one anyway, no matter the cost. They’ve badgered witnesses with questions about Craft’s exercise and lawn-mowing habits, of all things. They’ve asked whether Craft is a narcissist, and if Craft ever passed out in a girlfriend’s bed after a night of drinking. These so-called “sordid revelations” that the kind that only a puritan (or an unhinged prosecutor) would connect to evidence of child molestation.
The case has gotten weirder and weirder. One defense witness, who let Craft watch her children every day for almost two years without incident, testified that one of Craft’s accusers — who is also a child actress — was “worldly for her age.” “Does that mean she’s a slut?” asked Gregor. When the witness uncomfortably denied the charge, Gregor wondered whether the child might be a “pre-slut.”
While change.org has two posts on the subject, much of the coverage is being done by this man (and this newspaper). The transgressions of the prosecutors in this case are numerous: from claiming that they didn’t have to obey the law, to employing the worst “experts”, to seeking to introduce dubious “prior bad acts”. I could really go on, but that wouldn’t do the story any justice. Instead, follow the yellow brick road from the ridiculous:
Craft’s trial has also seen a parade of so-called forensics experts act as effective cheerleaders for the prosecution. One expert who made an appearance, Holly Nave Kittle of the Children’s Advocacy Center, was openly hostile to questions about her lack of credentials and was unfamiliar with any relevant child abuse literature. Neither did she help her credibility as a witness after she “liked” a public Facebook post by Arnt, in which he wondered “if Tonya Craft’s Defense [sic] lawyers are really insane of [sic] just trying to jack up her defense bill?” (Both Arnt and Kittle’s conduct likely violate Georgia’s ethical rules.)
Another prosecution “expert” involved, Suzie Thorne, lacks a college degree, and her testimony seems highly suspect. When Thorne interviewed one of the children involved during a videotaped session, she asked the girl a whopping 16 times whether “anything else happened.” Each time, the child said no. However, Thorne testified that after she shut off the camera, the child left the room and then returned — suddenly remembering that yes, Craft had sexually abused her.
Fair enough. But then why didn’t Thorne record this statement, or press the child for more information on camera?
to the “what the fuck are you talking about?”:
“Do you know anything about a time that Ms. Craft came to the door of her home dressed only in a towel to meet a first-time date?” “No, I do not,” said the witness.
Mr. Gregor asked, “Do you know any narcissists?” “No, I do not.”
“Would a good person molest a child?” “No.” “Would a good person insert a finger or thumb in a vagina or rectum?” “No.”
As Noah Arenstein at Change puts it: the prosecutors were becoming increasingly unhinged. At least until the media showed up. But that’s not the worst of it. The man who seems to have defiled the purity and sanctity of the law the most is the judge presiding over the trial: Judge Brian House. Starting with declining (without explanation) to recuse himself from the trial, despite having represented Craft’s ex-husband in his divorce from her, to permitting completely irrelevant testimony about the defendant’s alleged affairs with adults, to not permitting the defense to present any character evidence of the defendant, after permitting irrelevant character-assassination testimony from the prosecution.
We all are aware that allegations of child sexual abuse inflame the passions of most people. But when a woman is so horribly being railroaded in a trial, where the singular aim seems to be to obtain a conviction in the face of damning evidence suggesting the contrary, where all independent observes agree that even if a conviction is obtained, it is sure to be reversed on appeal, do we know that we’ve crossed the line from hysteria into madness.
Prosecutors so abusing their power and a judge sanctioning the farce is a damning indictment of the lengths we will go to to demonize those that may be innocent so long as a child is involved. Whether Tonya Craft is guilty or not is irrelevant. That the trial is being permitted to be conducted in such an egregious manner casts a dark pall over all of us that hold the criminal justice system here in such high regard.
While this is the first I’ve read about Tonya Craft, this won’t be the last. I hope it’s the same for you.
[You can follow coverage of the trial by reporters on Twitter and use the #TonyaCraft hashtag.]
Every day is Caturday
Apr 29th
Cats are popular. They’re even more popular on the internet, which was, as we all know, invented just for cats. Every day is Caturday [here's the ED version of Caturday, which means it's totally NSFW. I mean it, really. Not. Safe. For. Work].
Sometimes, though, the internet bleeds into real life (shocking, I know). And such has been the case the past week, with three stories – two local – involving cats and crime.
First, this tragi-comic tale of Gregory Lesco, who killed the family cat after it ate his pet bird (no, I”m not making that up):
Police say Lesco told them he was doing dishes when the bird flew from his cage to join him and the cat, named Pepper, jumped up and grabbed it. He said he hit the cat in the head with a baseball bat and then suffocated it with a rug.
He says he struck the cat to try to get it to drop the bird, and then suffocated it because he couldn’t afford to take it to a vet to treat its injuries.
Mr. Lesco, not to be confused with the equally bizarre Matthew Lesko, is charged with one count of Animal Cruelty, which happens to be a class D felony, punishable by 5 years in jail.
Then yesterday, I saw this post by Rick Horowitz about a Michigan law that makes it a crime for cats to fight. Since there’s no room in cat jails, they stick the owners in human jails instead:
The City of Kalamazoo, Michigan, apparently has some fairly weird laws on the books regarding animals. For example, it is apparently a misdemeanor — not an infraction, but a misdemeanor with a real criminal record and a real jail sentence as a potential punishment — not that a simple thing like a criminal record could ever impact anyone’s ability to get a job or a professional license — a misdemeanor to own a cat that fights with other cats. In addition to making it apparently illegal to have a cat that fights with other cats, Kalamazoo also charges owning a dog that barks as a misdemeanor.
I don’t know if that last bit is true, but the charges will be dropped if the cat behaves herself. The cat’s plan is working. Next step: world domination.
And finally, this morning, we get news of a honest-to-goodness cat burglar. No, I mean that literally. A woman who burgles cats (and there’s another awesome cat picture after the jump so don’t you dare not click through):
Institutional coddling
Apr 27th
Lawyers are coddled, writes Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle, because they can’t be sued unless a client’s conviction is overturned. They’re coddled because they’re not monetarily liable for any errors they make that result in a conviction.
Bennett takes a bite at the apple, which in turn causes Greenfield to jump in. Bennett first:
The aim of the legal system—civil and criminal—when someone is sentenced to more time through the fault of his lawyer should be to reduce that person’s sentence, rather than to compensate him for it. Getting lawyers to help fix their own mistakes should take priority over getting them to pay up.
A rule that encourages lawyers who make mistakes that harm their clients to come clean is preferable to one that encourages them to stonewall. Allowing clients to sue lawyers because their sentences are too long encourages lawyers to stonewall. As the law stands, even with no practical sanction, too many criminal defense lawyers treat an ineffective-assistance claim as a personal affront; better lawyers treat it as one last opportunity to help the client get free. Add a financial penalty, though, and it’ll be only the rare (or well-insured) lawyer who tries to help his client get his sentence reduced.
So the rule that a person who hasn’t been acquitted can’t sue his lawyer for negligence, even if that negligence resulted in a lengthier sentence, benefits not only the criminal defense bar but also—and maybe more so—the wrongfully sentenced.
Bennett mentions the problem I have with coddled lawyers, but only in passing. Greenfield places the blame squarely on our shoulders:
The mistake is a problem, but not the most significant problem. The one that undermines our integrity, and gives rise to Rick Casey’s complaint, is our inability to admit our error and correct it. Rather than concede error, lawyers try to bury it. [...]
Rick Casey’s issue is real, and it’s getting worse rather than better. It was a problem before, and is more of a problem today. We are coddled, and we coddle ourselves. No amount of lip service paid to the defendant we failed, who sits in a prison cell while lawyers ingratiate themselves with others to get more twitter love, cares how many followers we have. This mutual admiration society with people we don’t even know is not a substitute for having the guts to own up to mistakes so that human beings don’t spend a second longer suffering for them than they should.
The answer isn’t disclosing whether we possess malpractice insurance. The answer is being a real criminal defense lawyer, warts and all, rather than just pretending to be one for the benefit of being part of the gang. Do the hard work that minimizes the potential for mistakes. But when a screw-up happens, as it invariably will, make it right.
They’re both right. We are coddled. But they don’t focus on the other “third prong”, as it were, of the coddling. It doesn’t just come from the fraternity of lawyers, but from on high. The coddling of lawyers is institutionalized in our jurisprudence. From the collective mistrust and offhand dismissal of allegations of ineffective assistance that pervades the criminal bar to the vast legal opinions that ridicule such claims to the institutional roadblocks to even getting judicial review of the mistakes made by lawyers in their handling of cases.
Ask anyone who’s tried an ineffective assistance of counsel case. The coddling begins at the beginning. First, the community of habeas corpus lawyers are treated as lepers; outsiders on the lunatic fringes of the criminal defense bar. Trial lawyers are dismissive and uncooperative. Clients seeking redress via The Great Writ are viewed as whiners, their lawyers are traitors. Files aren’t turned over, communication is non-existent and the defenses are raised to maximum alert.
Habeas petitioners then have to jump through unmanageable hoops to actually get the merits of their claims heard by courts. Procedural default, deliberate bypass, cause and prejudice are institutional tools designed to protect the “finality” of convictions and to punish the defendant for failing to do that which a lawyer should have done and didn’t: provide effective assistance and own up to mistakes. The jurisprudence places the onus on the pro-se defendant to recognize that a) his lawyer has messed up and b) that he has an avenue for redress.
And if this defendant is somehow able to surmount the gargantuan task of getting a court to consider the merits, he is faced with the three-headed monster: an uncooperative trial lawyer, a skeptical, cynical and weary judge and a veritable landfill of caselaw that is designed to thwart his every effort to ensure that “justice” is done in his case.
Judicial scrutiny of counsel’s performance must be highly deferential. It is all too tempting for a defendant to second-guess counsel’s assistance after conviction or adverse sentence, and it is all too easy for a court, examining counsel’s defense after it has proved unsuccessful, to conclude that a particular act or omission of counsel was unreasonable. Cf. Engle v. Isaac, 456 U. S. 107, 133-134 (1982). A fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel’s challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel’s perspective at the time. Because of the difficulties inherent in making the evaluation, a court must indulge a strong presumption that counsel’s conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action “might be considered sound trial strategy.” See Michel v. Louisiana, supra, at 101. There are countless ways to provide effective assistance in any given case. Even the best criminal defense attorneys would not defend a particular client in the same way. See Goodpaster, 690 The Trial for Life: Effective Assistance of Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, 58 N. Y. U. L. Rev. 299, 343 (1983).
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). Courts are even given the power to deny the petitioner relief on either prong of Strickland:
All drivers are dangerous and the police are the Borg
Apr 26th
Consider the facts:
On April 1, 2006, Officers Craig Miller, David Rivera and Charles Gargano of the New Haven police department were patrolling the Fair Haven neighborhood as part of their duties with that city’s drug interdiction unit. The neighborhood was known for frequent drug trafficking activity. The officers were in an unmarked patrol car, operated by Rivera. At approximately 5:15 p.m., the officers observed a Chevrolet Impala turn right from Ferry Street onto Grand Street without signaling. The officers followed the Impala around the block, during which time they also observed that the defendant, who was operating the car, was not wearing a seat belt. Pursuant to police department policy, the officers called dispatch to request a marked cruiser in order to effectuate a motor vehicle violation stop.
Three marked patrol cars responded to the dispatch call, and stopped the Impala at the corner of Ferry Street and Grand Street. The unmarked patrol car stopped approximately one half of a car length behind the Impala. While still in their unmarked patrol car, Rivera, Miller and Gargano observed the defendant make a movement toward his right side, which led them to believe that the defendant might be concealing a weapon. The three officers then approached the Impala. As they were approaching, Miller observed the defendant close the center console in the front seat.
Rivera removed the defendant from the vehicle, handcuffed him, and frisked him for weapons. While frisking the defendant for weapons, Rivera discovered $1369 in cash and several cell phones on his person. At the same time, Miller and Gargano, as well as several officers from the other patrol cars, removed the two passengers from the vehicle, handcuffed them, and frisked them for weapons. Miller then returned to the car and observed some plastic protruding from the center console. He opened the console and removed plastic bags that he believed to contain crack cocaine. The officers also determined that the Impala was owned by a rental car company. Subsequent testing revealed that the bags discovered in the console contained approximately 21.5 grams of freebase cocaine, commonly referred to as crack cocaine.
So, let’s recap, in normalspeak: officers were in a “minority high crime neighborhood”, looking for an excuse to pull someone over. They saw the defendant commit a motor vehicle violation. They pulled the car over and saw the defendant “make a movement toward his right side” (whatever the hell that means) and decide not only that he was armed, but because he was in a “MHCN”, he was dangerous and probably selling drugs. They handcuffed everybody and searched them and the car with impunity. We now contort ourselves to affirm this stream of clearly illegal activity by the police.
The defendant filed a motion to suppress relying on Arizona v. Gant, which holds that once you have arrested the occupants of the vehicle, there is no more legitimate “officer safety concern”, so a warrant must be obtained.
The Court rejects (emphatically!) the defendants contention that Gant applies since the defendant wasn’t technically arrested until after the drugs were discovered and instead agrees with the State that the “protective search” rubric of Michigan v. Long must control. In Long, the Supreme Court said that the:
purpose of protective searches to be the concern that if the suspect is not placed under arrest, he will be permitted to . . . [go free], and he will then have access to any weapons
and thus, when analyzing a warrantless search under Long:
our focus is on whether the officers had a reasonable and articulable suspicion to believe that the defendant posed a danger and might access the vehicle to gain control of a weapon.
Well, clearly, since the defendant wasn’t actually arrested and merely in a state of “custodial arrest (maybe)”, the question then becomes whether the officers had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that he posed a danger and that there was a weapon in the vehicle.
Remember now, that this was in a “minority high crime neighborhood” and that all three officers saw a “movement to his right side” and one saw him “close the center console”. That same officer then innocently “returned to the car” and saw “some plastic protruding” from that very same center console.
But that’s not enough, is it? Surely even the CT Supreme Court would not hold that that is sufficient to conduct a warrantless search of a motor vehicle? Of course not. Which is why we have the “collective knowledge of law enforcement” exception to the Fourth Amendment.
In conducting this analysis, we are cognizant of ‘‘the well settled principle that, in testing the amount of evidence that supports probable cause, it is not the personal knowledge of the arresting officer, but the collective knowledge of the law enforcement organization at the time of the arrest that must be considered. See Poulos v. Pfizer, Inc., 244 Conn. 598, 619 (1998) (McDonald, J., concurring) (Fourth amendment law recognizes that the collective knowledge of the police determines probable cause. See Whiteley v. Warden, 401 U.S. 560, 568 [1971]; see 2 W. LaFave, Search and Seizure [3d Ed. 1996] § 3.5 [b], p. 259 n.46.); State v. Acquin, 187 Conn. 647, 657 (1982) (when we test the quantum of [evidence supporting] probable cause, it is not the personal knowledge of the arresting officer but the collective knowledge of the law enforcement organization at the time of the arrest which must be considered)’’
Justice Who?
Miller and Rivera saw the defendant “make a movement to his right side”, Miller saw the defendant close the center console, Rivera frisked the defendant and pulled out a gun-like cell phone and cash, and Miller saw the plastic in the console. Of course, they all knew that it was a minority high crime area. And there was testimony that Miller and Rivera shared their observations and findings with one another. Wait, there wasn’t? Oh nevermind. Their knowledge is imputed onto one another.
In fact, applying Whiteley, why stop there? What if Rivera wasn’t on the scene and hadn’t discovered the call signs of drug activity: cell phones and cash? Wherever he was, he must’ve known that those items indicate drug activity. And Officer Krupke, on his beat at the other end of town surely knows that anyone who has cell phones and cash is an armed and dangerous drug dealer! So, of course, the officer at the scene had articulable and reasonable suspicion to search the vehicle. And look, they don’t even have to arrest anyone! Wheee!!!
Because anyone in the police department anywhere is cognizant of the fact that if you’re driving in a minority high crime neighborhood without a seatbelt and you make a movement to your right side and close the center console and happen to have cash and a cell phone, you must be an armed and dangerous drug kingpin. It’s in their – and your – DNA.
Welcome to the 24th Century, where the police are the Borg. The Fourth Amendment will be assimilated. Resistance is futile. Don’t drive.
[A plea: if anyone figures out what "movement to his right side" means, please leave a comment. I have no fucking clue. Kthxbai.]
The downfall of parody
Apr 25th
How hard is too hard?
Apr 25th
In response to my previous post on lawyer misadvice, a longtime PD and friend of the blog asks: when does counseling end and coercion begin? How hard can you push the client to make a certain decision before it crosses the line? To be sure, it is an important question and a difficult one.
The choices that have to be made about all the “big stuff” – whether to take an offer, whether to testify, whether to waive a jury trial – are the client’s domain. We get to unilaterally handle the “other stuff” – what witnesses to call, what questions to ask, what tact to take.
The reality, however, is that most clients will do what their lawyers tell them to. Clients want this and lawyers recognize this: “Ultimately, you have to decide whether to take this deal or not, but…”
This is an awesome power in our hands – which is why I argue that we must exercise it with the greatest care and in the most informed manner possible – that can easily corrupt us and blur the lines between giving advice and making decisions.
There’s a reason that we wield this power: we are the ones trained in the ways of the system, we have the experience and most importantly, the client can never seem to get out of his own way.
So how hard do we push to convince the client to do A when he seems set on doing B, which is detrimental to him?
Clearly, the outer limits of the spectrum are set: one should not take a hands-off approach and merely lay out the alternatives for the client and one cannot make unilateral decisions on the client’s behalf, either by lying or obfuscating or keeping the client in the dark.
It’s the vast expanse in between that’s tricky. When does forceful and repeated advocacy cross the line into impermissible arm-twisting? In true lawyerspeak, I think the answer depends.
It depends on the client himself, the event that you’re counseling the client about and the level of confidence you have in the conclusion you’ve reached.
Take, for example, the decision to testify. It is indisputably the client’s. Yet, most lawyers will tell you that unless the client is compelling, it is usually a bad idea. Clients, on the other hand, will usually have very strong feelings about whether they want to testify. I’ve yet to encounter one who is ambivalent. They either are adamant that they have to take the stand and present their “side” of things, or are experienced enough to know that, in their case, it would be a terrible idea.
If their conclusion is the same as yours, great. If it isn’t, can you do anything to get the client to change his/her mind? Apprising them of the obvious downsides to testifying is a start: their record, lack of any concrete testimony, demeanor, etc. But what if the client is oblivious to these problems or chooses to ignore them? Do you persist? Do you try a different tact?
I don’t know the answer to that question. I believe that if I am convinced it would be a terrible idea for the client to testify, I would state it in no uncertain terms. I would probably have another lawyer in my office talk to the client to provide a second opinion. I may even do a mock direct/cross of the client to demonstrate the pitfalls. Is that pushing too hard? I don’t know. I don’t think so, but others may disagree.
If, after all of that, the client still persists, well, the only thing you can do is damage control.
Getting back to the original question in this post: how hard is too hard? Put another way, how do you know when to stop?
The answer, I think, is this: when you’re convinced that the client fully understands everything that you understand. Only when you are confident that you have explained all the things that led to you to the opposite conclusion, can you let the client make the “wrong” decision.
Again this depends on the client. For some, it may take one meeting. For others, it may take 5. But this is the only way I can put into words the elusive and shifting requirement of effective representation.
You may have a different view. Tell me about it in the comments.
Effective misadvice is ineffective
Apr 23rd
[Or: Leave your ego in law school]
When Ahmed Kenyatta Ebron was told by his lawyer that he should reject the State’s offer and instead plead guilty without an agreement because “he couldn’t do much worse or words to that effect”, he did what all of us usually hope our clients do: take our advice.
At this open plea, armed with the client’s record and an unfavorable pre-sentence investigation report, the judge imposed a sentence of 11 years to serve, 5 more than the State’s offer of 6.
Mr. Ebron, relying on counsel’s advice, is serving 5 more years than he should be. For now, at least. His conviction has been reversed, based on ineffective assistance of counsel, and that reversal has survived the Appellate Court (I’m not optimistic about its chances at the Supreme Court).
The events leading up to Mr. Ebron’s conviction, the habeas itself and the aftermath raise several points.
First, it is easy to forget that at the end of the day, we are in a service industry. As criminal defense lawyers, our job description is limited to the service of another. We are protecting the rights of others, we are helping others make important decisions about their lives and we are, ultimately, representatives of other people.
That this is easy to forget should come as no surprise. Lawyers have famously large egos. But there is a danger in letting the sense of self overwhelm the duty and responsibility that we have.
It is that duty to the client that compels us to treat each case with the attention that we would give to it were we the defendant. There is no greater sin that can be committed by the defense lawyer than misadvising the client.
Clients rely on us to show them the way, to spell out the alternatives and to recommend one over the other, based on our knowledge, skill and experience, keeping their best interests in mind.
It is imperative that we fully inform ourselves of the facts and circumstances of the client’s case and then, and only then, recommend a final course of action.
I am not suggesting that we must force a client to take our advice; the client remains free to make stupid decisions. But the advice that we give clients must be sound. There are some that take the view that our job is to present the alternatives to the client and then accept whatever decision the client makes. I am not of that view. I believe – and certainly I may take some flak for this – that it is our responsibility to do our best to convince the client to choose the course of action that is in his/her best interests, despite the client’s seeming disapproval of that path.
This, however, can only be done if the advice we give is informed. We can only stand behind the advice we give if we are convinced that it is the best alternative and that decision can only be made with a full understanding of all the circumstances and an awareness of the pitfalls of that and every other course of action. If someone else, years down the road, decides that the advice was unreasonable, so be it. No one gets hurt by that and it only helps the client.
Ebron’s lawyer didn’t do that (and to his credit, took responsibility for it). The standard for effective assistance of counsel is woefully low. To scrape by and meet Constitutional scrutiny, a lawyer needn’t do much. But if you’re aiming for the standard, then you’re not really fulfilling your duty. If you truly believe it is sufficient to perform at a minimum level, then there are other areas of law that might be better suited for you. Stop meddling with the liberties and freedoms of fellow men and women.
…
Ineffective assistance of counsel is a sort of “dirty” phrase in the criminal defense world. It is viewed by many as a personal attack and is met with scorn, anger and derision directed toward those who practice in the post-conviction arena. That this view is prevalent among the bar is alarming. It belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the duties and responsibilities of the defense lawyer in the criminal justice system.
IAC claims are not a taint on your reputation nor is it an indictment of your abilities. It is a recognition of the simple fact that we are all working within a juggernaut of a system that from time to time overwhelms even the best of us.
At the end of the day, it is you and I who go home to our comfortable beds. You and I have the ability to walk outside in the free world and to buy what we choose and talk to whom we want, whenever we want. To place our petty egos and some twisted sense of self-worth before the complaints of the convicted client, who has nothing but a badly beaten and bruised writ to use to seek his release from the oppressive conditions of confinement in our penal institutions is pettiness of the ugliest kind.
The local listserve erupted with comments after the release of the Ebron decision: there were voices from both sides – those that praised the decision and those that lamented the additional burdens it seemingly placed on the defense lawyer (based, it seems to me, on a misreading of the case and the responsibilities it underlines).
Why does IAC evoke such polarized reactions among us? Are we that sensitive? Or is it because we view ourselves as separate and distinct from our clients? Do we believe that the players in the criminal justice system are the State, the judge, the defendant and the defense lawyer? If so, that is a terribly misbegotten view.
This may be getting repetitive, but it cannot be said enough that in order to truly serve our clients we must view ourselves as nothing but an extension of the individual client. We must be the client, at every moment that we represent them. We – criminal defense lawyers – are not parties to a criminal case. The client is. We are his representative. We must, at all times, remember that and act like it.
I will not lie to help a client, but I will not add my name to the list of those that violate his Constitutional rights.
The other Michigan bailout
Apr 21st
Much has been written over the last two years or so about bailouts: bailouts of Wall Street, banks and of course the auto-industry, formerly of Detroit, Michigan. This blog has also focused on bailouts, but those of a different kind: the bailouts of public defender systems which are not forthcoming.
As I’ve mentioned before, we are approaching a tipping point in the fight against constitutionally inadequate public defender systems across the country. The ‘sphere has been atwitter over the news that 14 public defenders in Minnesota have filed a labor grievance over excessive caseloads.
Yet the internet has been oddly silent about a battle on another front in nearby Michigan. In 2007, the ACLU of Michigan filed suit against three counties and sought to have their indigent defense systems declared unconstitutional and to have the state provide funding.
On April 14, 2010, the Michigan Supreme Court heard oral argument in an expedited appeal on the state’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.You can view the oral argument here [and really, even if you ignore this entire post, make sure you watch the oral argument], and the briefs and other related documents are available here.
The oral argument, despite its premature stage, beautifully frames the core issues at play here: can defendants sue the State to ensure that they receive constitutionally adequate representation; whose duty is it to provide that representation; and just how difficult a task is it to prove that there is a systemic 6th Amendment failure?
[The oral argument is also noteworthy for other things, such as the Attorney General's complete butchering of Cronic and the conflation of the Strickland standard with the civil "injury" and of course, the proffer of the idea that any and all 6th Amendment violations can only be asserted after a conviction.]
The idea of a systemic failure, of course, is not difficult to grasp. States that leave the funding to individual local counties are bound to have an indigent defense system that is arbitrary and inconsistent.
It must be the State’s obligation to provide effective assistance of counsel to all defendants at all stages of a criminal proceeding. That is the only way to ensure that Gideon’s mandate is fulfilled.
Whether this lawsuit will achieve that goal remains to be seen. I suspect, however, that the ACLU and those bringing suit have another motive in mind: to force the state to legislate more funding, as has been done in other states and is currently being done in others still.
It seems that the strategy may be paying off already, at least in Michigan.
Going back to what I wrote earlier, it doesn’t matter what the mechanism employed is, as long as states are forced to confront the reality that their public defender systems are woefully inadequate and that the first step to fixing them is greater funding.
The battle has begun, the war will be won.
It’s criminal!: an analysis of CT Supreme Ct opinions
Apr 19th
Two long years ago, on a bored Saturday afternoon, spurred by my (now AWOL) muse Miranda, I wrote this post which superficially analyzed Connecticut Supreme Court decisions. The analysis was pretty limited: how many times did the State win and how many times did the defendant win.
Well. I’ve done it again. Here is my updated count, from February 2008 to today.
In that time period, the Supreme Court decided approximately 110 cases dealing with criminal law (I’ve left out the habeas corpus cases because…well, this was fucking depressing enough. If I include habeas cases, the numbers are sure to get worse for defendants).
Of those 110 cases, an astounding 64 were direct appeals to the Supreme Court. This is either a direct appeal by statute (few) or a transfer to the Supreme Court before the Appellate Court got to decide it (many, many more than in years past).
Of those 64 direct appeals, 52 were affirmances of convictions.
Of the 46 cases that went through the Appellate Court, the State was granted cert in 28 cases, the defendant in 18 (the numbers may be off by one or two, because there were a couple of “cross-appeals”. I don’t remember how I counted them).
Of all the cases that came from the Appellate Court, the breakdown is as follows:
- When the State appealed a reversal of a conviction, the Appellate Court was affirmed 8 times.
- When the defendant appealed an affirmance of a conviction, the Appellate Court was affirmed 14 times.
- When the defendant appealed an affirmance of a conviction, the Appellate Court was reversed only twice (!).
and the big kahuna:
- When the State appealed a reversal of a conviction, the Appellate Court was reversed 21 times.
So, in 29 cases where the State appealed from the Appellate Court’s reversal of a conviction, they won 21 times, which is 75%.
The Appellate Court was reversed by the Supreme Court in 23 cases out of 46, which is a 50% failure rate.
Of the reversals, the defendant “lost” 91.3% of the time.
A conviction upheld by the Appellate Court was upheld by the Supreme Court 87.5% of the time.
A defendant was successful in the Supreme Court in only 10 out of 46 cases, which is a paltry 21% success rate.
[Keep in mind that I have included partial wins as wins.]
Overall, out of the 110 criminal-ish cases considered by the Supreme Court, the defendant was ultimately successful in getting either an acquittal or new trial in 22 cases, which is a 20% rate of success. By contrast, the State “won” in 80% of all cases considered by the Supreme Court.
Also keep in mind that over the course of the last two plus years, the Supreme Court has issued some very, very bad decisions and one or two good decisions, which they promptly started to roll back.
Liberal, defendant-loving judges indeed. Welcome to Connecticut, the Texas of the Northeast.
http://apublicdefender.com/2008/02/02/superficial-analysis-of-ct-supreme-court-decisions/
I see crumb people
Apr 15th
Yes, that’s a play on words. And a clever one, if you think about it.
If it’s April, it means it’s time for the new year’s first edition of “Follow the Crumbs“. You search, I ridicule, in a nutshell. Let’s get on with it, shall we?
- alfred doctrine: “such rot sir, why you’re the very model of sanity, oh by the way I pressed your tights and put away your exploding gas balls”
- public defender jokes: “what do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50?” “Your Honor.”
- qualifications for a public defender: ability to think inside the box, fear of authority, lack of testicular fortitude, law degree optional.
- honey defender.com: aren’t you sweet?
- beat the law and excessive bond just had to be put together
- reading prison: is certainly better than living it
- I hate you please don’t leave me: oh wait, this is one of my own searches
- lie to me realistic: okay. That dress makes your butt look fat.
- ipostnaked: this is a recurring theme. I feel like I’m missing out on the latest internet meme.
- sex ooo: Is that your o face?
- restatement of law third the law governing lawyers chapter 1, section 3: seriously? Get off my lawn.
- front end solutions to prison overcrowding: build bigger prisons?
- castrated myself: I told you that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client.
- who is a public defender: I am Spartacus!
- how to get off and sex offender registering: okay, okay, that was one search, not two.
- connecticut public defender blog: this be she, matey. Now walk the plank. Arrr.
- sex in public: generally frowned upon.
- lie to me accuracy: 50-50
- remedies for constitutional violations: pretend the constitution doesn’t exist. Problem solved.
- statutory rape quotes: “statutory rape”
- does a snitch have to testify: well, you might as well know the consequences before committing the deed.
- why public defenders are important: I love you. Will you marry me? My number is 1-900-CEG-IDEON
- argument for child sex: usually not well thought out
- i’m stoned: me too, brah, me too.
- how to cook frosting: what.the.fcuk.
- the constitution is unconstitutional: the entire document was written with invisible ink.
- auntie and niece sexual relationship the law: are they both above 18? If so, set up live streaming video website immediately. By law.
- the sex offender registry is fucking bullshit: couldn’t have said it better myself
- can you inject cocaine: maybe I shouldn’t ask, but into what?
- need money: yes, me too. Let me know when you find some laying around.
- where can I get a job if I’m an ex felon in New Britain, CT: okay, this just made me really sad.
- does a public defender make it worse: yes and applying cream to the affected area makes it better.
- cotus with 12 year old girl: did you mean SCOTUS with 12 year old girl?
- why does my co-defendant not have the same court date as me: because he’s snitchin’ on you. Or you’re snitchin’ on him. Either way, a-snitchin’s afoot.
- disrespect + prison + inmate + big +deal +everything: I think you’ve got it covered quite well.
- bare suspicion: the bare necessity
- missy whited drugs: …
This, folks, is how my mind works. You’re welcome.
Skakel loses the battle, but the war looms?
Apr 15th
In a mind bogglingly long opinion released earlier this week, CT’s Supreme Court upheld the denial of Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel‘s motion for new trial. There is a concurrence and a dissent as well.
The decision is long and I don’t care enough to dissect it. Except to state that despite the court shooting down all his claims, there is still hope for Skakel. And that rests entirely on the claim that Mickey Sherman, celebrity lawyer extraordinaire, rendered ineffective assistance of counsel.
Normally, our appellate courts are quick to shoot down future hypothetical claims of ineffective assistance. Not so in this case:
The trial court concluded that efforts to locate the three witnesses prior to and during trial did not satisfy due diligence. The court further concluded that these witnesses could have been located using the same methods that ultimately were used after trial to locate them. Therefore, the court concluded that the evidence was not newly discovered within the meaning of § 52-270. We agree.
It is highly significant that this evidence is not newly discovered in the sense that the petitioner did not know of the existence of these witnesses prior to trial. Coleman had identified these witnesses years before trial. Moreover, the petitioner should have known that Coleman’s testimony, if credited, could be a key piece of evidence in the state’s case.
Sherman apparently concluded, however, that cross-examination of Coleman at trial would be sufficient to discredit him, as he justified his lack of direction to Colucci about locating these witnesses by the fact that he ‘‘didn’t anticipate that . . . Coleman would be dead at the [time of] trial . . . [and] believed that the jury would see [him].’’ Sherman had James’ contact information in the spring of 2002, but could not ‘‘connect’’ with him. No effort was made to locate Simpson or Grubin prior to or during the trial. Therefore, we fully agree with the trial court’s conclusion that Sherman had failed to exercise due diligence to locate the three witnesses.
and:
Enough already
Apr 11th
I can’t read the news anymore, nor can I watch it. Perhaps this is why I exclusively read blogs. News is depressing these days and local news more so. The headlines are practically the same every week: “2 shot in New Haven”, “Man found dead in Hartford”, “Summer is around the corner; violence is spiking”.
There was a time when I’d read the stories with some interest and make a mental note of the coverage. This could, after all, be my next case.
But not anymore. Not today, at least.
I’m tired. I’m tired of the violence. I’m tired of the lives needlessly lost. I’m tired of the damage to the community and the individuals. I’m tired of watching yet another man take someone else’s life and throw his own away. I’m tired of yet another directionless teen who got sucked into the “culture”, yet another mope who knows of no other way but crime. I’m tired of the grandstanding, the pontification, the holier-than-thou attitude. I’m tired of society getting outraged at the consequences, but doing nothing to treat the cause.
Crime will never stop. As long as I love my job, I guess that’s a good thing. There’ll always be something to do, someone to represent, some novel legal issue to research into the ground.
Sometimes I just wish it didn’t have to come with the attendant realities of pain, loss and fleeting promises of lives since extinguished.
Besides, I have too much work already. Give this guy a break, will ya? Stop shooting and killing each other.
Aww, you shouldn’t have
Apr 11th
I’m proud to announce the addition of a new section to the blog. What with credibility on the internet being a hot topic these days, I’ve enlisted the help of some dear friends to help prove mine. In the testimonial section of the blog, you can read what others are saying about me and this blog itself. Don’t be shy, add your own in the comments here and I’ll include them too!
Bysiewicz in brief
Apr 11th
[Yes, another Susan Bysiewicz as AG post. But these are hit-machines, so I'ma milk this cash cow till it comes home.]
Thanks to the good folks at CT News Junkie, we get to read the trial brief submitted to Judge Michael Sheldon by Bysiewicz’s attorney Wesley Horton [I guess someone at CTNJ went to the clerk's office, got a copy and scanned it, so there's this ugly watermark on every goddamn page].
My conclusion, after reading the brief, is this: Wesley Horton is every bit as good as his reputation and Susan Bysiewicz is torpedoing her own chances. If only she’d get out of the damn way and let Horton work his magic, she’s as good as CT’s next Attorney General.
Her answers to the deposition questions do nothing to help the fine arguments made by Horton. Horton, correctly in my opinion, leads with the argument that active practice means nothing more than admitted to the bar and in good standing.
He argues that the relevant rules of practice in effect in 1890 and even today distinguish between the statuses of lawyers based solely on their ability to practice law in the state: active practice as opposed to suspended or disbarred. He further argues that our courts have recognized that it is not easy to describe “active practice of law” and that a wide variety of functions can be understood to be legal practice:
Attempts to define the practice of law have not been particularly successful. The reason for this is the broad field covered. The more practical approach is to consider each state of facts and determine whether it falls within the fair intendment of the term.
As to the state of facts, this court has consistently held that the preparation of legal documents is commonly understood to be the practice of law. Grievance Committee v. Dacey, 154 Conn. 129, 140-44, 229 A.2d 339 (1966), appeal dismissed, 386 U.S. 683, 87 S. Ct. 1325, 18 L. Ed.2d 404 (1967); State Bar Assn. v. Connecticut Bank & Trust Co., supra, 145 Conn. 222; Grievance Committee v. Payne, supra, 128 Conn. 325; see also Monroe v. Horwitch, 820 F. Sup. 682 (D. Conn. 1993), aff’d, 19 F.3d 9 (2d Cir. 1994). “The practice of law consists in no small part of work performed outside of any court and having no immediate relation to proceedings in court. It embraces the giving of legal advice on a variety of subjects and the preparation of legal instruments covering an extensive field.
Statewide Grievance Committee v. Patton. This is an argument that Bysiewicz has made in the past, along with the notable “private practice” charge that she leveled against her “detractors” out of thin air. No one is arguing that “active practice at the bar of the state” literally means appearing in court and arguing in front of a judge or jury. That’s just silly.
But it’s important to note that not only is Horton arguing that she has the requisite years of admission to the bar, but in my opinion, there’s also a concession that the statute requires something more than just being someone admitted to the bar, i.e. you actually have to be engaged in the practice of law, in whatever capacity. This, of course, is in stark contradiction to Bysiewicz’s own answers to the hypotheticals posited by the Repub’s attorney (see link above).
In emphasizing this point, he quotes the Supreme Court of Florida:
Padilla: It’s not that complicated, really
Apr 11th
[Yes, another Padilla v. Kentucky post. Sorry, suck it up.]
Padilla is what some might call a “landmark” case; altering the landscape at least for the defense practitioner. So, with reason, it has generated much discussion among those of us who’ve chosen to make our views and opinions public. And with any such new “landmark” decision, there’s a difference of opinion as to the impact and specifically in this case, the impact on the duties and responsibilities of the defense lawyer.
Scott has written several posts bemoaning the lack of clarity in immigration law and warning us all that we now have this awesome burden that really isn’t one we can bear. In his latest missive, he enlists the help of Darth Vader Justin Bieber Ken “I used to be a defense lawyer” Lammers at KrimLaw.
There’s nothing better than the simple life, where a handy “cheat sheet” gives a laundry list of everything you need to know. Print it out. Carry it to court. Be brilliant. Except…that’s not really the problem. The problem is that the Padilla duty is largely a no brainer at the extremes, where the immigrant defendant pleads to possession of 457 kilos of cocaine with intent to sell (it’s a little large for personal use anyway), or doing 37 in a 35 mile per hour zone, with or without your windows excessively tinted. The problem is toward the middle of the spectrum, where all this mushy information does little to inform.
[That link is inserted by me.] If I understand Scott’s point correctly, he’s saying that the decision places an unfair burden on us to investigate, learn and give advice about a really complicated area of law, in the mushy in-the-middle circumstances of immigration consequences.
I’m not sure that’s what Padilla requires. Let’s go back to the decision and see what Justice Stevens said:
Immigration law can be complex, and it is a legal specialty of its own. Some members of the bar who represent clients facing criminal charges, in either state or federal court or both, may not be well versed in it. There will, therefore, undoubtedly be numerous situations in which the deportation consequences of a particular plea are unclear or uncertain.
This is exactly the scenario that Scott writes about. So what does the Court have to say about it?:
The duty of the private practitioner in such cases is more limited. When the law is not succinct and straightforward (as it is in many of the scenarios posited by JUSTICE ALITO), a criminal defense attorney need do no more than advise a non-citizen client that pending criminal charges may carry a risk of adverse immigration consequences. But when the deportation consequence is truly clear, as it was in this case, the duty to give correct advice is equally clear.
I’m not sure there’s anything complicated about that. Now, one might turn around and argue that it’s difficult to know in which situations the consequences are “truly clear”. Perhaps. But those situations aren’t tough to figure out. Unless you’re saying “hey, I don’t really want to figure out in what circumstances my client will be deported”.
Ken writes:
I can remember talking to State officials and defense attorneys who specialized in Spanish language defendants and hearing the same thing more than once, “Yes, the feds can deport, but they don’t want to be bothered unless there is a violent felony.” Of course, it wasn’t always phrased quite so blandly. So, the attorney in Padilla’s case may have been giving what was basically reality based advice based upon experience. I haven’t seen the feds swoop in and deport people therefore, they shan’t do it to you. Of course, the problem with this is that the feds can alter their behavior randomly and unilaterally. And, in Padilla’s case someone in the federal government thought that transporting a tractor-trailer full of marijuana might just be a reason to deport someone.
There’s quite the difference between “this is a deportable crime” and “yeah, sure you can be deported, but you won’t be, really”. The former is Constitutionally sound advice; the latter is not. Just because the Feds may or may not deport your client doesn’t absolve you of the duty to inform your client that he is subject to deportation.
And that’s all Padilla requires you to do (which makes it seem more and more like an empty decision, the more I think about it): tell the client there’s a chance he will be deported. It does not impose a duty on you to try and figure out how to prevent him from being deported, but certainly no one will complain if you do.
In the comments to Scott’s post, another blogger writes:
The real problem is that none of the cheat sheets are state specific – criminal law is state specific – immigration law is not – and it is here where these two intersect. You’ve got to know the specifics of the state law and most immigration practicioners do not. And the answer is always, it depends.
Personal experience with immigration lawyers varies and the range of skill within the immigration law bar varies just as much as it does in the criminal law field. But any immigration lawyer worth his degree and reputation will absolutely know the intricacies of the law of the state in which he practices. He has to. After all, most people are deported based on state convictions. So find a good one, talk to him or her. Every reputable immigration lawyer I’ve called has been more than happy to not only give me an educated guess on whether the client is deportable but also on how to avoid that deportation and what the client should plead to.
The bottom line, as far as I can see, is this: If the consequences are clear (and they usually are, save for the myriad drug offenses), then tell your client that he will be subject to deportation. If the consequences aren’t clear, then tell your client that he may be subject to deportation. If he wants to know more, find out. Call an immigration lawyer, go to a CLE. Unless you’ve been catering solely to clients who are citizens, this is going to come up again and again. Spending a day or so learning about the immigration consequences or picking up a phone and talking to someone knows will only make you a better lawyer. Maybe some of you can leverage that into a niche practice.
But remember that the obligation is to the client and the client only. The more you know, the better you serve the client.
[What I think will really end up happening here is that courts will start including an "immigration consequences" portion to their plea canvasses, much like that which is required here in CT by statute: "do you understand that this plea may result in deportation or removal?". Which would - and does - satisfy Padilla and everyone's obligation.]
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