Criminal Law

Every day, every day, every day, every day they throw the book

Posted on October 09, 2008
Sith Esquire explains: Why I'm here everydayI've told people more times then not when they ask the dumbest question in the world "how do you defend people you know are guilty?" that it takes a particular kind of person to do this job, and I always thought that was b...

CA: cut therapeutic courts now, pay later

Posted on October 08, 2008
From the Sacramento Bee:Mental Health Court makes strides, but funds drying upSacramento County's Mental Health Court is diverting mentally ill, habitual, nonviolent offenders away from a cycle that spins them through jail and back on the street... Mental health court is saving millions in criminal justice costs, as it has in Santa Clara County, supporters say...

CA: the man in the white hat

Posted on October 06, 2008
From the Bakersfield Californian: Retirement not an adjournment for ?top gun? attorney His boss calls him the ?Top Gun? attorney at the Kern County Public Defender?s office... Veteran trial attorney Michael Lukehart gave his last closing argument as a Kern County deputy public defender Monday...

WA: clean your lint filter!

Posted on October 06, 2008
Why I met with my clients outside today, from the Olympian:Fire closes family, juvenile courts for dayThurston County family and juvenile courts are closed after a dryer fire filled the building with smoke this morning...

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ID: nothing pretextual to see here, move along

Posted on October 05, 2008
From the Times-News:Man arrested for littering in Twin FallsTwin Falls police arrested a homeless man for littering after he allegedly shucked the plastic wrapper from a pack of cigarettes to the ground...And they all moved away from him there on the Group W bench...

WA: President Josiah Bartlet vs. physician - assisted suicide

Posted on October 05, 2008
Here in the other Washington, the Coalition Against Assisted Suicide has released this ad with Martin Sheen opposing I-1000 (pdf file), you know, "death with dignity."

FL: Scop goes to juvy

Posted on October 03, 2008
Scoplaw may feel like he's being sent down to the minors, but really, I think it's going to be a good move:(T)his really should be an egoless job, or, more properly, your ego should be made to serve good ends. You fight for your clients on so many different levels, trying to redeem something for them; even if the legal case is hopeless, the people who are accused never are...

ID: whoredom in Moscow

Posted on October 02, 2008
My l-school alma mater has named a leadership award after Sarah Palin.

CA: police encounter etiquette for kids

Posted on October 01, 2008
From the San Jose Mercury News:New guide offers advice to teens on criminal behavior, copsHoping it will find a place along with "Animal Farm" and "Julius Caesar" in high school kids' backpacks, the San Jose Independent Police Auditor is coming out with an updated edition of the "Students' Guide to Police Practices...

MO: p.d. system "on verge of collapse"

Posted on September 30, 2008
It's the swaths that'll kill ya, from the Springfield News-Leader:Public defenders to reject some cases - Overwhelmed attorneys will turn away swath of clientsOn Wednesday, public defenders in Springfield and elsewhere in the state will begin to refuse cases...

ID: defenses down in the hinterlands

Posted on September 29, 2008
Idaho news from the Olympian: Rural lawyer shortage crimps NC Idaho countiesRural north central Idaho communities facing a shortage of lawyers to work as public defenders... have been forced to hire legal counsel from as far as 100 miles away...Idaho County Commissioner Randy Doman...

Guantánamo prosecutor quits over Brady violations

Posted on September 26, 2008
From the Washington Post:Guantanamo Prosecutor Quits, Says Evidence Was WithheldA military prosecutor involved in war crimes cases here has quit his position, citing ethical concerns about his office's failure to turn over exculpatory material to attorneys for an Afghan detainee...

NY: 5 boroughs, one p.d. blog

Posted on September 25, 2008
An addition to the blogroll, from some real "Raising the Bar" p.d.'s:Five Borough Defense - New York City Public DefendersHow can you tell they're real NYC p.d's? Exhibit A (which does not include my wimpy Idaho-person asterisks):Another client coming to court every few weeks for a year because some *ssh*le called the cops...

ID: "the adult correctional system has nothing to offer for children..."

Posted on September 24, 2008
From the Idaho Press-Tribune: Arraignment for youth suspect postponedA 3rd District Court judge delay(ed) the arraignment of 14-year-old Trevor Reizenstein as an adult...The teen is accused of holding a 5-year-old girl against her will, molesting and attempting to murder her in January 2007...

WA & ID: writing about jury duty

Posted on September 22, 2008
Seattle writer Kelley Eskridge blogs about voir dire (part one) (part two), then gets fan mail from a criminal defense lawyer. Good stuff.See also Idaho blogger Rob's jury duty perspective.

ID & TX: "Idaho should step up to the plate and bring their prisoners home"

Posted on September 22, 2008
Probing article on the Idaho archipelago, from Andrea Jackson of the Twin Falls Times-News - Families feel loss as out-of-state prison population grows- and the same article picked up by the Houston Chronicle:Idaho's out-of-state prison population growsPam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was turned away one day because he wasn't there...

NV: MD or PD, "you help people that need help"

Posted on September 21, 2008
From the Nevada Appeal:From medicine to law, new State Public Defender is just trying to helpFor 17 years, Diane Crow has worked for the State Public Defender's Office in Carson City handling everything from trespassing to capital murder cases. On Thursday, Gov...

"'Peace Corps 1962: turned village over to Communists' ... Who's gonna hire me?"

Posted on September 21, 2008
The Cougars actually won this weekend. To mark the occasion, here's John Candy singing the Wazzu fight song, from "Volunteers."I was living on the Palouse at the time the movie came out, and a few of my law school classmates labeled me, "Tom Tuttle from Tacoma...

ID: spill soda, go to the big house!

Posted on September 20, 2008
Huzzah, my home town made Harper's:Unexpected Consequences from a Mug of SodaThe latest episode showing the Justice Department?s more than curious notions of justice can be found this week in the pages of the Idaho Statesman. Natalie Walters is now facing prosecution that could put her in prison for six months...

Bearing witness

Posted on September 19, 2008
Something remarkable and sad from The Urban Monk:Why I Watch People DieI cannot escape the fact that not far away a man is being taken into a room, strapped down and killed. And he may deserve it or he may not, but he is there not for the lives he took, but because he was the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time...

"Magical animals walk among us"

Posted on September 19, 2008
From Dominic Holden at Slog: Tracking Down Those Unicorns Last week White House appointee John Walters claimed on C-SPAN that finding people in jail for ?first-time nonviolent possession of marijuana... is like finding a unicorn... because it doesn?t exist...

"Circumstances have conspired," but in a good way

Posted on September 18, 2008
Ms. Injustice Anywhere, I'm glad that you're back to blogging. (and thanks for the birthday greeting, too)

ID: tear down the lighthouse

Posted on September 18, 2008
From the Boise Weekly:Ambivalent death - Capital punishment's most heinous casesWhat does it take to become the poster child for the death penalty?

Cannabis counsel pro and con

Posted on September 16, 2008
The gentle herb giveth: (I)t's ok if you can?t afford private counsel. The often abused Public Defenders are among the very best lawyers anywhere. Their standards are high; their training is excellent. The sometimes higher paid members of the ?private bar? often call on them for advice...

WA: "sweatshop defense" and bad breaks in ole Vantucky

Posted on September 16, 2008
A long disjointed post from Washblog on three strikes, two-bit justice and one messed-up life:A 3-Strikes Story: Abusive Foster Care, Deadly Streets, Broken Public Defense. WE CAN DO BETTER! If nothing else disproves the 3-Strikes assumption that people convicted of three crimes are irredeemable, it is this response, seen in Schawn (Cruze)'s case - and also with other Washington's 3-Strikers - of rising above hopelessness, accepting responsibility, and striving to realize his own potential under devastating circumstances...

RIP David Foster Wallace

Posted on September 14, 2008
There will be droughts and days inundatedunveilings free from saturationdepartures raised with no masquerading.There will be teachers that die by their own handpundits that push headlong for atonementfriends and followers devoted to living.There will be watchers that plot from in confinesand those committed to society's circlesunwary cogs with no cadence or virtue...

ID: snitch deal? - make sure your client can get it done

Posted on September 14, 2008
Boise criminal defense lawyer Chuck Peterson has bad news for the would-be snitch: Dancing With The Devil - Appeals Court Says No Dance, No Deal In an interesting Idaho Court of Appeals decision, the writing is on the wall for anyone cutting a cooperation deal that requires the Defendant to assist a drug task force by ?identifying, apprehending, and convicting those people involved in the use, distribution, and manufacture of controlled substances...

OK: liquored-up lawyer loquacious in lock-up

Posted on September 13, 2008
From The Oklahoman / NewsOK: Attorneys accused in eatery hubbub Accused by police of being drunk, driving the wrong way in a fast-food drive-through lane, impersonating law enforcement and spitting on a police officer, an attorney was arrested Friday in Warr Acres...

GA: "the inequity drives me"

Posted on September 12, 2008
From the Dalton Daily Citizen:Public defenders passionate about workPublic defender Betsey Flack said she doesn?t mind the workload and what some in the legal profession may consider the position?s low pay. To Flack, protecting people?s legal rights is critical...

Homeless court

Posted on September 11, 2008
From In These Times: Homeless Court Advantage (D)owntown San Diego... is where the country?s first homeless court began. No witness stand. No bench for the judge. Just a bare ground with some folding chairs. Started by San Diego County public defender Steve Binder in 1989, the court offers the homeless population access to the legal system...

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