a public defender

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So here’s a topical installment of What Really Grinds My Gears:

For Scott:

Click on the image for a larger version

Reading an appellate decision today, it hit me that I really, really hate the “harmless error” analysis. So here’s a poll. What, according to you, is the most evil legal principle out there? I’ve added a few options to the poll, but feel free to leave comments as I can’t cover them all.

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Image courtesy: http://www.medicalassistedtreatment.org/57811/370627.html?*session*id*key*=*session*id*val*

It truly is a sad day when an eight year old second grader is charged with possession of crack cocaine. It would be one thing if the kid was indeed, somehow, buying and selling crack, but by all accounts, this young boy found the crack on his way to school and showed it to some classmates.

The police did their thing, too. They asked questions, investigated and reached this conclusion:

“We interviewed enough people that we’re comfortable with [his] answer,” New Haven police Sgt. Rick Rodriguez said.

The boy is charged with a felony, but police decided to arrest him to ensure he receives services from the court, such as counseling, said Police Chief Francisco Ortiz.

Ah yes, the only way the boy was going to get counseling was to arrest him, bring him to juvenile court and then contact the wonderful Department of Families and Children.

There has to be a better way of achieving that goal, than subjecting this child to even an arrest. Time to rethink the system a bit, methinks.

An ex-inmate, trick or treating with his daughter, caused the NY State Westchester County jail to go into lockdown.

Why? Well, the former inmate, Oscar Aponte, chose to wear his DOC issued jumpsuit as his Halloween costume. This prompted an off-duty corrections officer - also trick or treating - to confront him and then call the jail to see if anyone escaped.

Hence the lockdown.

"Bad choice of costume," said Susan Tolchin, chief adviser to County Executive Andrew Spano.

"[The officer] confronted him, and he ran and drove off," Tolchin said. The
officer took down the man’s license plate and called Peekskill police
and the Corrections Department.

So what happens next?

Meanwhile, Peekskill police and the county’s Special Investigation
Unit found Aponte, confiscated the genuine jumpsuit and let him go.

Aponte was arrested and charged Wednesday with petty larceny and
possession of stolen property, Tolchin said. She said prisoners are not
permitted to take their jumpsuits home when they are released.

"They get their possessions in a clear plastic bag, so it’s hard to see how he got a jumpsuit out, if he did," she said.

Isn’t that the real question here? How did he get his real jumpsuit out of the prison? To top it off, they’re going to prosecute him for this? It seems that NY doesn’t have any serious crimes to prosecute anymore.

It’s good to know that internet advice columns aren’t written only by people who disparage public defenders. [previous post here] Thanks to skelly (again), we pds can now have the pleasure of knowing that at least one person has our backs in the private vs. pd debate.

So pervasive is the distrust of public defenders that defendants
routinely max out their credit cards, take out second mortgages, and
empty their retirement funds just to hire a private criminal defense
attorney.

Any warm body with a law degree can hang out a shingle and call himself
a criminal defense attorney. In fact, many of those who can’t get a job
at the public defender do just that. Your private attorney could turn
out to be a bottom feeder, with poor academic credentials and little or
no criminal defense experience.

Public defenders are criminal defense specialists. They practice
criminal law every day, and gain experience quickly due to heavy
caseloads and a sink or swim mentality. They are surrounded by
colleagues and supervisors whom they can learn from and consult with.

Hear, hear!

txpd (she really should change her username) cites and expands on a post by skelly regarding a particularly humorous complaint by the Grant County police department in Washington state. I’ll let her tell the story:

A bit of background on Washington criminal procedure. Unlike in Texas,
where criminal law is largely trial by ambush, in Washington, the
defense has a right to interview any witness the state plans on calling
in their case in chief. If the listed witness won’t talk to you, you
can make the prosecutor set up the interview for you! You actually have
the right to ask the witness questions before you have to cross-examine
him in court! Civil attorneys might be familiar with this procedure
which they call discovery. Criminal defense lawyers, depending on their
jurisdiction, may be shocked. Anyway, I would guess from the current
complaints that the old lawyers representing the poor in Grant County
weren’t all that keen on interviewing many of the witnesses in their
cases. But now, the new public defenders are, and it’s making things
hard for the poor police officers and prosecutors. Excuse me while I
wipe away the lone tear slowly falling from my eye.

Aside from the hilarity in their complains, I’m pleasantly surprised (and a little jealous) that the defense has an absolute right to interview all witnesses!

Ambimb has a funny and insightful take on Dick Wolf’s new Law and Order incarnation: Conviction.

Ok, I’m really annoyed. For the first time in my blawging "career", I got tagged to participate in some game and because I was so darned busy at work, I missed it!

So ANYWAY, I’m still going to do it. (Thanks IJ).

"These women’s rights will be sacrificed if this fishing expedition is
not halted or narrowed,” the clinics said in court papers.

That is the 5th line from my 23rd post (roughly).

Here are the rules:

1.Go into your archives.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Post the fifth sentence (or closest to it).
4. Post the text of the sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five other people to do the same thing.

Since this "meme" was in fashion over two weeks ago, it’s probably died out by now, so I won’t bother passing it on to someone else. Thanks for letting me play anyway!

 TxPD ain’t da only one dat can speak street.

One of my previous posts:

What’s more, her proposal calls fo` tha  offenda themselves
ta pay fo` tha GPS straight trippin’. Oh, n Governor, there is already
a statute fo` failure ta crazy ass n**** or ta maintain registrizzles
so sit back relax new jacks get smacked.

The last one is all tha more sippin’ - n is somewhat akin ta
Sensenbrenna’s Family Snitch law . Ya f#*! with us, we gots to f@$# you
up. What does mackin’ mean? Is she mackin’ T-H-to-tha-izzat if person A
knows thiznat person B is a sex drug deala n thizzay person B has not
registizzles tizzy person A is liable? Or wizzle it be even brotha n
encompass all those messin’ shelta ta a sex motherf&@%? (which, by tha
wizzy is mobbin’ more n more difficult) straight from long beach n****.

I’ve edited out the profanities - if you want to see the full page, click here.

You know, I have clients that end up spending more time in jail than they should - could be because of a bad deal, changing parole laws… whatever. I also know that everyone is suddenly tough on crime, so inmates are finding it more and more difficult to get lighter sentences and earlier parole release dates. But, this, this is going too far. According to IA,

      The Dallas County jail has been plagued by problems since the county began using a new computer system to keep track of inmates.  Numerous inmates have been held past their release dates.  These include people who pled out and were held past the end of their sentence, people whose cases were dismissed or no-billed by the grand jury, people who posted bond, and people who were arrested and never charged.
The county commissioner responsible for the new system, however,
maintains there have only been minor problems, and is not inclined to
apologize to any of those wrongly incarcerated. I’m guessing if he were
wrongfully held in the jail for months, lost his job, and was evicted
from his housing, he wouldn’t think these were minor problems.

Wowie-wow-wow.

As Melissa asks in the comments here, does GA have jursidiction to prosecute the Runaway Bride?

Blondie answers.

The Runaway Bride.

Felony charge of false statement and misdemeanor charge of false report.

As if the $10,000 already spent wasn’t enough.

UPDATE: Please read the comments for Scheherazade’s response and
clarification. Ofcourse, I should have realized that she was talking
about Indians living abroad. But I’ve really had it up to here with the
"you’re stealing our jobs" crap, so I lost my intelligence a little
bit. My apologies.

Original Post: Stay of Execution has a post entitled "Legal Lies", in which she(?) "exposes" the truths about law school and the legal industry. Not a bad read. Here’s what really got my attention, though:

** We permit young associates to believe that they are somehow worth $125,000 a year, without knowing any law, even though there are smart, experienced, well-trained Indians who can do the same work, better, for far less.

I’m sorry. What’s that again? So Indians, who go to the same law schools, incur the same debt, would be willing to work for less than any other associate at a law school? Why? Because they’re Indian? Right. The call-center thing. Which is just the same as graduating from a law school with a professional degree.

So I should take a pay cut because I’m Indian. Gov. Rell, let me give you back some of my hard-earned income.

Despicable.

Hat tip: Amb Imb.

was that of Mary Kay Letourneau, who despite serving 7 years in prison for "rape", married her longtime boyfriend.

Seriously, what was the point of sending her to jail?