Criminal Law

WA: Cheech & Chong now constitutionally protected in Washington State

Posted on July 18, 2008
From the Olympian:Court: Can't arrest all in car based on drug smellThe scent of marijuana wafting from a car isn't enough reason for police to arrest everyone inside, but officers can still follow their noses to search a vehicle, Washington's Supreme Court ruled Thursday...

Corner constitutionalists

Posted on July 18, 2008
From the Washington Monthly:Too Weird for The Wire - How black Baltimore drug dealers are using white supremacist legal theories to confound the Feds(N)early twenty defendants... had begun adopting what lawyers in the federal courthouse came to call ?the flesh-and-blood defense...

ID: ?operating in the blind?

Posted on July 18, 2008
From the Idaho Statesman:Joseph Duncan's attorneys say he is not mentally competent to stand trialU.S. District Judge Edward Lodge said Thursday he will have to schedule a hearing to determine whether confessed killer Joseph Duncan is mentally competent enough to continue with his oft-delayed death penalty sentencing hearing...

Lakefair... you know, for kids!

Posted on July 17, 2008
The boy and I just got back from Lakefair, Capitol Lake's yearly salute to algae and milfoil. The first day of each Lakefair is dedicated to the children of Thurston County, and to the men and women of the county juvenile probation department. For the P...

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ID: fight the DP, kayak, hike, and ski

Posted on July 16, 2008
PD veterans and capital punishment combatants! Looking to keep fighting the good fight, but in a more outdoorsy setting? The Idaho State Appellate Public Defender is hiring:The successful applicant will be representing indigent defendants in state capital post-conviction and appellate proceedings...

ND: grand opening

Posted on July 14, 2008
From the Bismarck Tribune:Public defender office opens in BismarckFor now, the lobby of North Dakota's newest public defender office is empty - chairs unoccupied, end tables not yet cluttered by magazines. But that likely will change this week when the office's attorneys start getting assignments to represent indigent defendants in 12 counties...

ID: new crim def blog from home

Posted on July 14, 2008
Introducing a new LexBlogger, Idaho Criminal Defense Blog, written by Boise lawyer Chuck Peterson. Most recent post:(W)hat kind of fool would leave a sitting judge on a jury. As it turned out - the kind of fool who trusts the man, and does not fear the robe...

Oh thank heaven

Posted on July 11, 2008
This is one of my favorite dates on the liturgical calendar:7-11, Free Slurpee Day. Still a few hours left to get yourself to the nearest 7-11 and partake.

"Maybe we're all masochists"

Posted on July 10, 2008
Many of us have felt like this, from Eat, Drink & Be Married:Right now, I'm dealing with an extremely difficult client... But the issue isn't just this one client. It's much more about what this client represents. There's a culture of abuse that most public defenders come to accept...

And you wouldn't want to live there

Posted on July 09, 2008
More photographic proof of our public defender pariah status - we're even scaring off drop-in visitors!Bonus link goes to Simple Justice and Scott Greenfield's (improvement on my) post on a similar theme, This Year's Loser Job.

WA & ID: p.d. motörhead

Posted on July 09, 2008
Why not take a spin with this fast-moving member of the Spokane County P.D.'s Office? From Paralegal Gateway's Weblog: Paralegal by Day - Motor Head by NightBy day, he's a paralegal with the Spokane County Public Defender's office. By night, his idea of fun is going fast and turning left...

AZ: let my people stay

Posted on July 08, 2008
From the Arizona Daily Star:Attorney exodus irks public service officialsTwo years ago, Pima County's top prosecutor and top public defenders persuaded the Board of Supervisors to increase their attorneys' salaries by 16 percent to stop a mass exodus...

ID: pocket full of kryptonite

Posted on July 08, 2008
From the Times-News:More appeals pending in Johnson caseThe Idaho State Appellate Public Defender's Office is considering whether to challenge the Idaho Supreme Court's opinion last week that rejected Sarah Johnson's appeal of her 2005 murder convictions for killing her parents...

It's not just a job, it's an adventure

Posted on July 07, 2008
Once, my kind were as numerous as the mighty bison and the migratory hippie, and we roamed the courtrooms of this land armed with our "liberalism" and our concern for the "underprivileged." Now the younglings are explaining to me this new path that we trod...

DC: murderer of pd intern guilty

Posted on July 07, 2008
From WLJA:D.C. Man Convicted of Killing Public Defender InternThe U.S. Attorney's Office says a Washington man has been convicted of killing an intern with the Public Defender Service last year... Twenty-one-year-old Donnell Harris was found guilty Monday of second-degree murder while armed in connection with the death of Michael Richardson...

"Restoring a bit of America?s lost luster"

Posted on July 05, 2008
Audio from Public Radio International's The World:Defending a Guantanamo detaineeAnchor Marco Werman speaks with Air Force attorney Major David Frakt. Frakt is defending a Guantanamo detainee named Mohammed Jawad who's accused of the attempted murder of two US soldiers in Afghanistan in 2002...

CA: the dude abides

Posted on July 04, 2008
My blogfather Public Defender Dude is calling for submissions:If you want to slip me any gossip from your Courthouses (in California only, preferably Southern Cal), I'm happy to listen to it. Maybe it will even make it into the blog if it's explosive enough...

Getting back on the horse again and again

Posted on July 04, 2008
A practicum with Iowa Champion:Dealing with disappointment 101One of the hardest things to learn as a defense attorney (or a prosecutor for that matter) is how to deal with a bad outcome in a case. It is not taught in any classroom at law school...

Empathy, patience, and a game of chess

Posted on July 03, 2008
Interesting perspective from a still - relatively - junior colleague, from Newsweek:Equal Before The Law - As A Public Defender, I Must Often Challenge Prejudices, Including My Own, For My ClientsWhen I first started my job, I thought like a social worker...

WA: yes, it seems spendy; no, you can't see it

Posted on July 03, 2008
From the Yakima Herald-Republic:Ruling keeps attorney billing records sealedRuling on a lawsuit filed by the Yakima Herald-Republic, a judge refused to unseal attorney billing records from a possible death penalty case that has cost Yakima County taxpayers just over $2 million...

MN: I heard the news today, oh boy

Posted on July 01, 2008
From Minnesota Public Radio:A day in the life of a Minnesota public defenderThe wheels of justice may move slowly, but some of the cogs, like public defender Lisa Kloster, are spinning at a dizzying pace...She ain't no cog. Listen to the MP3 / podcast here.

1-800-SUICIDE

Posted on June 30, 2008
A client of mine killed himself this past Thursday night. I found out today. For anyone else out there, here is a link to Hopeline.

WA & ID: murderer Braae says he's "just not the type that gives up easily"

Posted on June 29, 2008
From the Olympian:Questions linger over fate of missing womenWhen "Cowboy" Mike Braae was arrested after jumping off a 40-foot bridge into an Idaho river during a police chase..., it marked the end of what investigators say was a trail of rapes, slayings and domestic violence...

ID: little miss can be wrong

Posted on June 28, 2008
From the Idaho Mountain Express: Supreme Court upholds Johnson convictions The Idaho Supreme Court has upheld Sarah Johnson's convictions of killing her parents in 2003... Now 21, Johnson was 16 at the time... From the Times-News: Justices reject Sarah Johnson appeals - Court says 2005 murder conviction was legal The Idaho Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously upheld the conviction of Sarah Johnson for murdering her parents five years ago in their Bellevue home...

(What passes for) a compliment

Posted on June 26, 2008
Today from a client's parent:"You're good for court-appointed."

Must-see P.D. TV

Posted on June 25, 2008
A preview of Feige's big TV series, Raising the Bar:I say: All about public defenders fighting the good fight against the system while everyone else gets annoyed by their whiny do-gooder attitudes and cheap haircuts. Embarrassingly enjoyable...

ID: "wrangle" over Duncan's competency continues

Posted on June 25, 2008
From the Spokesman-Review's Eye on Boise:More delay in Duncan proceedingsIt?s now been two months since convicted multiple murderer Joseph Duncan?s death sentence hearings were put on hold to determine Duncan?s mental competence, after he sought to jettison his legal defense team and instead act as his own attorney in the proceedings...

WA: for juvy sex offenders, never-ending punishment

Posted on June 24, 2008
Always sucks, having to lay this out to a client and client's parent, from the P-I:Juvenile sex offenders marked for life - Records of childhood transgressions, never sealed, limit options for adultsSince 1997, more than 3,500 children in the state -- some as young as 10, though on average about 14 -- have been charged and convicted as felony sex offenders, a mark that remains on their records forever...

CO: heartbreaking loss

Posted on June 24, 2008
From the Daily Camera: Public defender Cary Lacklen remembered as 'ferocious advocate' - Lawyer spent more than 30 years in public defender's officeDefense attorneys and prosecutors in Boulder and across the state have been left reeling by the death last weekend of Cary Lacklen...

Joe is 9 today

Posted on June 23, 2008
Happy Birthday, my great kid.

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