Criminal Law

ID: murder re-trial - Lankford brothers "were making me feel uneasy"

Posted on February 06, 2008
From the AP, via the Times-News:Witnesses testify that Lankfords scared themA family of picnickers at a northern Idaho campground were so disturbed by a conversation with two men that they packed up and left, the murder trial of former Idaho death row inmate Mark Lankford was told...

ID: the "you've done this so many times before" basis for a knowing, voluntary and intelligent plea

Posted on February 04, 2008
I would be crestfallen to hear a judge say these words to a client of mine, even if they were true. From the Twin Falls Times-News:Murder defendants McElhiney, Heredia appear in court(C)oming before Judge Stoker on Thursday, Fredy Heredia-Juarez lost his bid to undo a guilty plea he says he didn't mean to make...

Overheard in open court today

Posted on February 04, 2008
"Um, do you people have some sort of form I use for that?"- paid lawyer who took a client from me (shortly after using the adult court term for the juvenile court disposition he was seeking)"She just blows every thing up and gets all dramastic."- young person reporting on parent-child relationship

Inane public defender question

Posted on February 04, 2008
A previously uncharted depth of inanity is plumbed in this hypothetical from Yahoo! Answers:The question is, what would happen if I was tried for murdered and I was truly innocent, but I had to get a public defender because I can't afford a lawyer to defend me, would I most likely be found innocent, guilty, or get a plea bargain...

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WA: "a culture of cutting corners" at state crime lab

Posted on January 31, 2008
From the Seattle P-I:Court throws out DUI breath tests - Other judges not bound to ruling condemning labBreath tests can't be used against many King County drunken-driving suspects until the State Patrol's toxicology lab can show that it has fixed ethical problems, scientific errors and carelessness that have called its work into question...

WA: pitting public defender agencies against each other

Posted on January 31, 2008
An article pretty much siding with one Seattle p.d. office over another, from the Seattle Weekly:Is This Really the Best Defense? - Nickels' critics wonder if defendants have suffered since the mayor put public-defense contracts out to bid"I think [the city] took a competent system and trashed it," says Seattle University law professor John Strait...

MySpace narc gets bit in butt

Posted on January 30, 2008
From a public defender:Three degrees of YOU?RE A PREDATOR!If you don?t have a MySpace or Facebook account, you?re nobody. Especially teens. Everyone has them and then some. So when middle school resource officer John Nohejl in Florida decided to set up a MySpace account so he could communicate with students in ways they do (with the blessing of the school), it seemed like a brilliant idea...

ID: Mark Lankford suits up for 2nd trial, 23 years after 1st

Posted on January 30, 2008
From the Idaho Statesman:N. Idaho jury selected for Lankford trialJurors have been selected for the new trial of a man previously convicted and sentenced to death in the slaying of a couple vacationing in northern Idaho in 1983. Second District Judge John Bradbury told the jurors on Monday that Mark H...

ID: Jeff Co crosses its fingers

Posted on January 29, 2008
From New West:Please Don?t Kill Anybody Here, an Idaho County AsksIf you?re thinking about killing someone, Jefferson County sure hopes you?re not planning to do it there.The eastern Idaho county, the largest city in which is Rigby, is the only county in the state of Idaho that does not participate in the Capital Crimes Defense Fund...

Endorsement: "the juvenile justice system rarely destroys families"

Posted on January 29, 2008
One lawyer's take on juvenile arraignments, from court-appointed contractor Penny at Penny Quilts:The Cowboy Boot Experiment Update and Juvenile DelinquentsSome of the kids at that point inform you that they are NOT going to stay in detention. It is amazing how many children honestly have no idea that what they want and what they get are frequently two different things...

FL: homenaje al matador

Posted on January 28, 2008
Fine eulogy for Louis O. Frost, one of the old bullfighters of public defense, from the Fernandina Beach News Leader:Ministering society's castawaysThe man we called Lou, or sometimes LOF, died last week at age 76 after a long fight with stomach cancer...

Gordon B. Hinckley, 1910-2008

Posted on January 28, 2008
Condolences to my LDS readers and colleagues, and to all the members of the Church.

OH: mourned defender / missing DNA evidence

Posted on January 27, 2008
From the Columbus Dispatch:* DAVID H. BODIKER 1934-2008 - Public defender was 'fierce advocate' for Death Row inmatesDavid H. Bodiker, an outspoken and relentless defender of the poor in Ohio's criminal court system, died Friday night after undergoing emergency heart surgery...

CA: "I really believe in the work"

Posted on January 27, 2008
From the North (San Diego) County Times:Ready to Rumble for justiceSome would-be lawyers aspire to fame or fortune when they leave law school. Wil Rumble says he had something different in mind. The 46-year-old attorney and North County resident has focused his career on representing defendants who cannot afford private attorneys...

Skelly Wright and Ruby Bridges

Posted on January 26, 2008
My son's been learning some good lessons this week. At the moment, he and I are watching a movie that he brought home from school about one of his new heroes, Ruby Bridges.I was pleased to Google her story and find the connection to one of my old heroes: On November 14, 1960, a 6-year-old Bridges, escorted by four gun-toting US federal marshals, walked past a screaming mob of angry white people to do the unthinkable in New Orleans at the time: Go to school with white children...

ID: "a dangerous experiment with the wrong kind of lab"

Posted on January 25, 2008
Where's the best place to locate a new "secure psychiatric treatment facility" for civilly committed, mentally ill Idahoans? Behind the concertina wire of the state pen, of course. From the Boise Weekly:Do Iron Bars a Mental Hospital Make? - Idaho is ready to lock up more mentally unstable people...

ID: Jack Van V for victory

Posted on January 25, 2008
I liked him as opposing counsel out at the Barrister courthouse; I loved him as the gutsiest civil libertarian in town. My colleague Jack Van Valkenburgh is taking a break from his labors after 18 years of nurturing civil liberties in the arid soil of my home state...

KY: department of online advocacy

Posted on January 23, 2008
The Department of Public Advocacy, Kentucky's statewide public defender agency, is making imaginative use of the Web.You can find DPA lawyers discussing their jobs on YouTube.You can check out DPA podcasts.You can even find DPA when you do a Facebook search for "Department of Public Advocacy...

A day off at Northwest Trek

Posted on January 22, 2008
Getting to be a Martin Luther King Jr. day tradition:Bonus link greetings of the day go to The Mountain Goat Report, In The Moment, and Feminist Mormon Housewife.

Oh happy day

Posted on January 21, 2008
It's past midnight on the east coast, and officially MLK Day. Blawg Review #143 is up at Public Defender Stuff, this year brought to you by Gideon.

WA: de facto public defender - commitment for the underdog

Posted on January 20, 2008
From the Columbian:Firm DefenseVancouver lawyer Jeff Barrar says he does criminal defense because he's "an Irish kid from Boston who doesn't trust the cops." His smile suggests he's kidding. It's hard to tell. What's clear is Barrar, the owner of Vancouver Defenders, seems as savvy about free-market capitalism as he is about the rights of the criminally accused...

GA: public defender, traditional conservative values

Posted on January 20, 2008
From the Macon Telegraph:Houston County attorney realizes his passion in public defenseNick White is passionate about defending people who cannot afford legal representation. But pursuing a career as a public defender isn't what he thought he'd be doing when he first entered law school...

ID: a voice crying in the desert

Posted on January 19, 2008
I found the online site for Rep. Nicole LeFavour (D-Boise), blogging from the floor of the Idaho legislature. This week she and some colleagues took a tour of the prison - industrial complex south of town and took some cellphone pictures (looks like IMSI - "Max," I think)...

P.D. bacchanal

Posted on January 19, 2008
This post reminded me...(A) bunch of public defenders in Las Vegas? I'm guessing (a) the parties will be good; and (b) there may be booty to be had.It's getting to be time to sign up for the 8th Annual Public Defender Retreat:A yearly gathering of public and private criminal defense attorneys, investigators, staff, law students, spouses, or anyone with a Public Defender Attitude...

WA: reverse the charges

Posted on January 19, 2008
From the Olympian:AT&T fined more than $300,000 for overcharging on prison callsAT&T has been fined more than $300,000 for overcharging families of prison inmates for collect phone calls from two Eastern Washington state prisons, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission announced Thursday...

ID: Methamphetamine memories...

Posted on January 17, 2008
What's too painful to remember, we simply choose to forget, at least until it's splashed across the website of our old home's newspaper. From the Twin Falls Times-News:Meth lab busted - Equipment to make drug found in downtown trailerDale "Red" Patterson...

"She's baaaack..."

Posted on January 17, 2008
From A Year in the Life:Counting Down to Maternity LeaveDisclaimer: I really do love my job (most of the time).That being said, it has its challenging moments... Now, one of the things about my office (and likely many PD offices) is that once I get assigned to handle a client's case, that person is mine forever -- until I'm burnt out and quit, or I just die...

FL: " your quintessential moral, ethical, caring person"

Posted on January 17, 2008
From Jacksonville.com:36 years as a public defender - He held that post in Duval, Clay and Nassau countiesLouis O'Melville Frost, who served as the public defender for Duval, Nassau and Clay counties for 36 years and was considered the dean of Florida public defenders, died in his sleep Tuesday night...

You know the angels wanna wear my red shoes

Posted on January 17, 2008
"You want someone who'd gone over your hopes, your desires..." Um, we are talking about hiring someone for LEGAL services, right?

But since their wings have got rusted

Posted on January 17, 2008
Okay, so the badmouthing the p.d.s approach is a popular marketing technique, but at least I liked this line: "Our job is to find a hole in your case, and if we find a hole, we're driving a truck through it!" (Coincidentally, I found a hole just by watching this ad)

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