probonolaw

Where Does the Killing End in Libya?

2011-11-22T10:32:00.003-05:00

Ghadafi's son, Saif al-Islam, now faces the death penalty. The International Criminal Court has apparently given up. We'll see how long it takes for the new regime in Libya, whatever it turns out to be, to do to him what the mob did to his father. Premeditated killing by any government or individual is just that and nothing more noble or justified. If it's not self defense or war, it's just plain homicide.

Now It's Syria's Turn

2011-11-08T12:50:00.005-05:00

After the summary executions of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi, should we expect anything else from the Assad government of Syria? The civilian death toll will almost certainly continue to mount. The rule of law is nowhere to be seen in any of this. Executions beget executions beget executions. These people will never step down, and they will not let the situation get as far out of hand as Gadhafi did.

The Messenger Does the Killing

2011-10-26T18:38:00.003-04:00

The circumstances of Moammar Gadhafi's killing are very disturbing on a number of levels. If there is any "message" here to other tyrants, it will certainly be confused with the messenger. Killing begets killing. Executions beget executions. How likely has it now become that other autocrats will "trust the system" if they cooperate and step down? The iron fist will only be clenched harder, and the rule of law will have no place in any of this. How probable is it that there will be no more summary executions in Libya? The perpetrators will call it justice, but it has another less noble name: homicide. To be continued. . . .

Gadhafi Gets the Death Penalty on the Spot

2011-10-25T11:56:00.005-04:00

Moammar Gadhafi's summary execution cannot be a good thing in the eyes of those who promote and value the rule of law. Time will tell, but I believe it was not prudent for our President to be praising the Libyan revolution and the NTC in the immediate aftermath of this brutal killing. Whatever precedent it sets cannot possibly bode well for the future. Our nation and its leadership need to rise above reveling in the worst manifestations of human misbehavior.

Isn't it ironic?

2011-01-11T22:33:00.003-05:00

The strongest argument in favor of the death penalty is generally agreed to be its deterrent effect. Isn't it ironic that the huge smiling face of Jared L. Loughner appears on the front page of today's New York Times?

Premeditated Homicide by Firing Squad

2010-06-24T12:14:00.003-04:00

Here is an excerpt from an extremely well done piece by Timothy Egan from today's New York Times Opinionator:

Around midnight last Friday the shoeless prisoner was roused from a nap and strapped into a chair. The guards put a patch over his heart, the firing squad’s target from 25 feet. Any last words? “I do not. No.” With that, a black hood was placed over the bald head of the condemned man, and the countdown began: five, four, three, two, one. Each of the five gunmen squeezed off a shot from a .30 caliber rifle, though one was firing a blank. At once, four bullets entered the chest of Ronnie Lee Gardner. His fist clenched. The fist opened. A few minutes later, his pulse was checked. The deed was done: the state of Utah had killed the killer. ************** Ronnie Lee Gardner was no martyr, no wronged man. His life was trouble and pain from the beginning. Drug and alcohol abuse. Random violence. Robberies, and two murders of people who had the misfortune to get in his way. “He believes he needs to pay for what he’s done,” the killer’s daughter, Brandie Gardner, told reporters before the execution. “But at the same time, people should know that what they’re doing is murder.” That’s really the heart of this debate, and always has been: is it murder for society to take a life?

It may not be "murder," but it is most definitely premeditated homicide, as this execution by firing squad vividly illustrates.

Death Penalty on (Mock) Trial

2010-02-11T14:53:00.004-05:00

This mock trial looks very interesting indeed. Premeditated homicide seems evil to me all day long. And no, I'm not talking about war or self defense.

Death Penalty Wake Up Call in Iran

2010-01-28T10:44:00.007-05:00

Iran's use of the death penalty to eliminate political opposition should give fair warning to all freedom loving countries of just how dangerous legalized killing can be. Consider this report:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran on Thursday executed two men accused of involvement in an armed anti-government group, as the public prosecutor announced that new death sentences have been issued against opposition activists involved in protests over June's disputed presidential election. The two men, who were hanged before dawn Tuesday, did not appear to be connected to the postelection protests - at least one of them was arrested before the election,according to his lawyer. But state media depicted the two as part of the protest movement, a sign of how the government has lumped together many of its enemies with the political opposition amid its postelection crackdown. The media's depiction of the executions may aim to intimidate the opposition ahead of new street demonstrations expected in February. In a further move likely aimed at cowing protesters, Tehran's prosecutor announced that five people have been sentenced to death for involvement in the most recent major demonstrations, on Dec. 27. That day saw the worst violence of postelection crackdown, with at least eight people killed in clashes between police and protesters and hundreds arrested.

The new verdicts raise to nine the number of people sentenced to death for involvement in protests, said the prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi. The two men who were executed, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour, were convicted by a Revolutionary Court of belonging to "counterrevolutionary and monarchist groups," plotting to overthrow "the Islamic establishment" and planning assassinations and bombings, Dowlatabadi told state TV.

Note in particular the reference to planned "assassinations and bombings" as additional justification for imposition of the death penalty.

What Is Wrong With the Death Penalty?

2010-01-25T13:49:00.002-05:00

Two words: premeditated homicide. Premeditation, the same thing that serves as the most aggravating of all factors in capital sentencing hearings, dominates every execution. It's just not for me.

KSM Spells Bad News for U.S. Citizen Defendants in Death Penalty Cases

2009-11-19T13:24:00.003-05:00

I know a lot of people are concerned that Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cohorts might somehow benefit from the procedural protections afforded to U.S. criminal defendants under our Constitution, particularly in capital cases. My greater concern is precisely the opposite. I think it is by far more probable that these protections will be disregarded or seriously diluted in pursuit of a supposed “greater good,” namely, the conviction and execution of these terrorist war criminals. As Attorney General Holder has made clear, failure to convict and execute them is not an option. As President Obama has pronounced, these defendants will be convicted and sentenced to death. This is not the “rule of law” in action. Indeed, this kind of conduct by the President and his Attorney General in any other civilian capital case would be unthinkably inappropriate. In making his hard nosed pronouncements, President Obama is not acting in a manner befitting the Chief Executive Officer of the United States. However, these same pronouncements would be understandably appropriate coming from him as the Commander in Chief of our armed forces convening a military tribunal to consider the fate of foreign criminal combatants who crossed our borders to murder thousands of our innocent citizens. My problem is that the lines between the military and civilian worlds are becoming dangerously blurred here. We can no more afford to have military imperatives dominate our civil justice system than we can to have domestic civil justice imperatives trump the mission of our armed forces. If there is still time to reconsider, we should not take this leap into the unknown without a further round of careful deliberations by our elected legislative representatives in the House and Senate. It is far too important a subject to leave to the Executive Branch of our federal government, except as it may fall within the scope of the President’s duties as Commander in Chief of our armed forces with respect to military tribunals.

Shocking Death Penalty Pretrial Publicity Campaign Waged by Our Nation's Top Officers

2009-11-18T12:16:00.007-05:00

Here is how the New York Daily News reported on Attorney General Eric Holder's testimony today before the Senate defending his decision to conduct the capital trials of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his cohorts in federal court in downtown Manhattan, along with the supporting comments of the President:

WASHINGTON - President Obama played chief prosecutor in the looming New York City 9/11 trial today, predicting critics will shut up when Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is convicted and executed for masterminding the attacks. "I don't think it would be offensive at all when he's convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him," Obama told NBC News .

If a U.S. federal prosecutor in any other capital case pending in federal court were to make these kinds of remarks in public, let alone openly to the people of the United States, there would be serious ethical concerns raised about injurious pretrial publicity. Worse, here is the response of AG Holder to criticism from Sen. Sessions for his decision to conduct these trials in civilian criminal court, made to the elected Senatorial representatives of the people of the United States:

But Holder scoffed at that, insisting KSM's voice and "hateful ideologies" will be no louder in civilian court than in a military commission. "We need not cower in the face of this enemy," Holder said. If KSM repeats his earlier rants in the courthouse at the U.S. naval base in Cuba, "the nation and world will see him for the coward he is," the attorney general added. "I'm not scared of what KSM has to say at trial - and no one else needs to be afraid, either."

If these remarks from the President and the Attorney General are not specifically intended to incriminate the defendants here and to promote highly prejudicial pretrial publicity in aid of pursuing the death penalty for them, then I'm a monkey's uncle. If this is to become acceptable ethical precedent for prosecutors in future U.S. capital litigation, the damage caused by our Chief Executive and his Chief Prosecutor will be staggering. The real issue here is whether these defendants should be tried in domestic criminal courts at all. Bad facts make bad law. We should think twice before we let the facts of war make law for our own citizens.

Iran Gets In the Death Penalty for Terrorists Game

2009-11-17T15:18:00.004-05:00

Iran has sentenced five people to death for their actions in the recent post election turmoil. Here is an excerpt from the full AP report :

A Justice Department statement said the five sentenced to death were members of "terrorist and armed opposition groups," state television reported. The statement said the courts have sentenced a total of 89 defendants since the process began and 81 of them got prison terms ranging from six months up to 15 years.

I wonder how long it will take for Iran to carry out these executions? It looks like the game of trying and executing "terrorists" is in full swing now. Our own Justice Department will get its turn at bat soon enough in federal court in downtown Manhattan. It's a good thing that we know for sure we have the right guys and that their crimes were so severe. Otherwise, we invite comparisons with how Iran tries and executes terrorists. For its part, Iran will no doubt contend that it nipped murderous violence in the bud before it could be carried out.

Are domestic civilian criminal courts the right place for trying and executing foreign terrorists?

Death Penalty on Parade!

2009-11-16T11:25:00.004-05:00

It's been a couple of years since my last post, but this deveopment has my full attention. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four alleged accomplices will be tried in New York federal court and that the government will seek the death penalty sets the stage for the most colossal show trials and executions since Saddam Hussein and his cohorts. Let's see how we do it compared to the Iraqis! Aside from issues of guilt, will there be a mitigation case developed for capital sentencing? The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bobby v. Van Hook downplaying the significance of American Bar Association guidelines setting forth minimum standards for effective death penalty representation seems ominously timed. The amount of damage these trials, which seem almost predestined to end with executions, will do to the rest of the capital litigation trial and appellate system in the U.S. remains to be seen, but I am not optimistic at all. For starters, anyone hoping that the federal death penalty will be abolished any time soon should forget about it. Stay tuned here.

Execution or political assassination?

2007-03-20T12:18:00.000-04:00

What can we learn about the death penalty from the report below? Note the contention of the defendant's son that his father was the victim of a "political assassination." Note also that the trial court sentence of life imprisonment was overruled on appeal as being too light. I also find it interesting that the Prime Minister's adviser not only spoke about how terrified the defendant was as he was led to the gallows, but also opined that the execution was not marred by unseemly problems. Does the Iraqi government always get it right? Does any government always get it right? The whole thing is so macabre that I am left without anything more to say.

SADDAM Hussein's vice-president was hanged yesterday despite protests by human rights groups that the evidence was weak and the sentence unfair. Taha Yassin Ramadan, the highest-ranking person from Saddam's government to be executed after the former president, was fearful as he was led to the gallows, said Bassam Ridha, adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
"He was scared, terrified, very terrified," Mr Ridha said. However, Mr Ridha said the hanging was not plagued by the problems that marred the executions of Saddam and his half-brother, which outraged Iraqis* * * *
Ramadan was convicted in November along with six others, including Saddam, for his role in the 1982 massacre of 148 Shiites in a small town north of Baghdad after an assassination attempt on the Iraqi president.
The trial court that sentenced Saddam to death sentenced Ramadan to life in prison, but an appeals court ruled the punishment was too light. The trial court then sentenced him to death last month. Despite being a senior official in the Saddam regime, Ramadan was a relatively minor figure in the trial. The accusations against him largely centred on his order that orchards and fields in the Dujayl area be bulldozed, and evidence was presented about his participation in meetings with other leaders who were more culpable in the massacres* * * *
"The trial was riddled with flaws and didn't meet international standards," said Sara Dareshori, senior counsel with Human Rights Watch in New York. Ramadan's son, Ahmad, said his father would be buried in the area of the Iraqi city of Tikrit near Saddam's burial place.
"It was not an execution. It was a political assassination," Ramadan's son told al-Jazeera television by telephone from the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.

Skadden, Arps does some good!

2007-03-15T18:35:00.000-04:00

I love seeing press releases like this one. All too often they do not get picked up and reported anywhere. Here, they are headlines!

LOS ANGELES, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Counsel, the largest probono public interest law firm in the world, announced today that it will name its nationally recognized Guardianship & Conservatorship Clinic in honor of the international law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, which made a gift of $200,000 to endow the program. The Clinic will now be known as the Skadden, Arps' Guardianship & Conservatorship Clinic.

Hats off to Skadden, Arps.

More dangerous vilification of Gitmo lawyers

2007-03-09T12:52:00.000-05:00

Here is some dangerous rhetoric from a Wall Street Journal commentary regarding legal services provided by Shearman & Sterling to a former Guantanamo detainee:

Shearman & Sterling lawyers aren't hucksters crassly promoting a cheap product; they are sworn officers of the court volunteering to represent alien enemy combatants in a time of war, interjecting themselves in cases that affect how American soldiers on the battlefield do their job. It is one thing to take these cases in order to achieve the proper balance between due process concerns and unprecedented national security issues. It is another to hire PR and marketing consultants to create image makeovers for suspected al Qaeda financiers, foot soldiers, weapons trainers and bomb makers, all of which is financed by millions of dollars from a foreign country enmeshed in the anti-American, anti-Israel elements of Middle East politics.

Please note my emphasis upon the word "suspected" in the excerpt above. Our legal system is just that--a system. How about waiting until a suspect is convicted before vilifying everyone in sight? Maybe the government never gets it wrong, and maybe some citizens have crystal balls which accurately tell them in advance who is guilty and who is not, but I don't think so. There's nothing even remotely wrong with allowing "suspected" enemy combatants to retain whatever lawyers or other professionals they want. This sounds like Cully Stimson all over again, only this time voicing an objection to lawyers and professionals representing paying clients who are wildly unpopular. The day when "suspects" are denied rights to counsel and vigorous rehabilitation of their impugned reputations may be just around the corner.

Help With The "Walter Reed" Problem

2007-03-05T13:29:00.000-05:00

There is no excuse for allowing any single one of our fallen heroes to slip through the cracks of bureaucratic stupidity. These young men and women are all volunteers. They deserve at least the A-1 care that each of our elected officials and civil servants get.All of our Congressional Representatives and Senators should quit posturing and authorize immediately the following:

Include any member of the armed services serving in Iraq and Afghanistan who has been injured or contracted an illness in the line of duty in the Congressional Health Care Program; and
Provide each such member with a volunteer advocate who is an experienced attorney, trained in healthcare law who can help the member steer through any remaining bureaucratic bullsh**.
Benjamin Franklin Legal Foundation is now recruiting volunteers for the advocacy program, whether or not Congress acts on the first part of this suggestion.

Please let me know by email or comment if you are willing to help by publicizing this idea or otherwise.

This is disturbing

2007-02-17T10:59:00.000-05:00

I'm not entirely sure how to take the sentiment conveyed in this recent post from the widely respected and enormously popular Power Line blog:

I concluded my post just below on the NFL's decision not to allow the U.S. Border Patrol to run a seemingly uncontroversial recruiting ad at the Super Bowl by suggesting a disconnect between corporate American and "real America." Good evidence of that disconnect is found in the saga of former Assistant Secretary of Defense Charles "Cully" Stimson. Most readers will recall that Stimson predicted or warned that elite law firms representing Gitmo detainees would lose business as a result of their pro bono work. But, as Stimson should have expected, corporate America stood behind its elite law firms, and Stimson apologized and soon thereafter resigned.
These days, the mentality manifested by elite corporations is quite similar to, but in some respects slightly more "progressive" (i.e. out-of-touch) than, that of the elite lawyers who represent them.

This sounds like a condemnation not only of "elite law firms" who provide pro bono services to highly unpopular clients (like the Guantanamo detainees), but also of the "elite corporations" which have continued to use the services of these law firms (as in "If you think that elite law firms who offer pro bono services to Guantanamo detainees are 'out of-touch', consider the case of the 'more out-of touch' elite corporations which not only continue to hire these lawyers but also oppose Super Bowl recruiting ads by the U.S Border Patrol.) Maybe there is some other more subtle point being argued, but I sure don't see it. The sentiments expressed by Cully Stimson may indeed be shared by others--fair enough in a free speaking society. But when I see these same sentiments reprised in sheep's clothing by other highly educated lawyers, it disturbs me.

What you see is what you get

2007-01-24T10:20:00.000-05:00

The sequel lived up to all expectations. Good thing there was no chanting.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two of Saddam Hussein's aides were hanged before dawn on Monday, the Iraqi government said, admitting that the head of his half-brother Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti was also ripped from his body during the execution. On the defensive after international uproar over sectarian taunts during the illicitly filmed hanging of the ousted president two weeks ago, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh insisted there was "no violation of procedure" during the executions of Barzan and former judge Awad Hamed al-Bander. But defense lawyers and politicians from Saddam's once dominant Sunni Arab minority expressed fury at the fate of Barzan, Saddam's once feared intelligence chief, and there was also skepticism and condemnation of Iraq's Shi'ite-dominated government across the mostly Sunni-ruled Arab world.
"The convicts were not subjected to any mistreatment," Dabbagh said describing the beheading by the rope as a rare mishap. "Their rights were not violated. There was no chanting."

The Super Bowl of Executions

2007-01-07T17:00:00.000-05:00

We are all given a death sentence the moment we are born. Although the time and manner are normally unknown, death is a certainty. Suicide and execution have this in common: both make known the time and manner of death to the victim. Both require the victim to stare death in the eye with the final moments of life ticking off to conclusion. Saddam Hussein's execution was a smash hit reality TV show watched by hundreds of millions of viewers around the world via the internet. This was the all time great execution-- the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Olympics, the World Cup of executions. It was about as good as it gets for executions, what with a notoriously evil mass murderer getting what he deserves and all. There was even some retributive justice thrown in by hecklers who damned him for eternity. Finally, good triumphed over evil. I really cannot agree with those who deplore the fact that Saddam was not executed in a more dignified way. For whose sake should this have been done? Ours or his? I was particularly struck by a question Bill O'Reilly posed to a supposed expert on his TV show about what Saddam's body language suggested as the rope was being placed around his neck. "He looks nervous," she said. Personally, I will never accept execution as being on the good side of any moral equation. I want to live in a society which values and spares life at every practical opportunity. I detest arguing about the death penalty and hearing comparisons with self defense, war, and protecting oneself and family from evildoers. I know I am going to lose this argument every time as surely as I know Saddam's half brother and the judge will soon swing just like he did, only maybe without the heckling (at least not out loud broadcast worldwide over the internet). Logic and argument get nowhere in this game. The only thing that matters is where you stand when the time comes. Who decides how and when we die? Absent some pretty compelling circumstances (yeah, like war and self defense), I don't want to decide how or when anyone dies. I will leave that to the Almighty whatever. In the meantime, I will continue to work shoulder to shoulder with pro bono lawyers around the country in our inalterable opposition to the death penalty.

Chinese pro bono lawyer gives hope to clients

2006-12-11T18:16:00.000-05:00

Here is the timely and compelling story of Chen Bulie, a brave Chinese lawyer in the forefront of pro bono efforts in China:

Watching the lawyer Chen Bulei argue his case, it was easy to forget that he was almost certain to lose. Pacing confidently before a packed courtroom in the northeastern Chinese city of Haicheng earlier this year, he scored rhetorical points so deftly that sympathetic onlookers pumped their fists like fans at a sporting event. Chen's client, a 56-year-old talc miner named Zhao Jitian, was on trial for "assembling a mob to disrupt social order"—a politically charged criminal offense often invoked to silence Chinese citizens who band together to air grievances against their employers or the government. Police in Haicheng had arrested Zhao five months earlier after he took part in a demonstration with about 100 other laid-off employees of the Aihai Talc Company to demand benefits they claim the firm had illegally withheld for nearly eight years. It is exceedingly rare for defendants charged with political crimes in China to escape conviction. But with Chen in his corner, brandishing a pocket-sized copy of China's criminal code as he punched hole after hole in the prosecution's charges, it seemed Zhao just might walk out of the courtroom a free man.

We are so fortunate to have our civil liberties, including the right to assemble, that we often take them for granted. Maybe through the pro bono service of lawyers like Chen Bulie we can be reminded of the sacred value of liberty and our own civil rights. Thank a pro bono lawyer if you see one today.

An absolutely amazing bar association: Broome County, NY

2006-12-07T10:57:00.000-05:00

I remember reading about the floods, but I don't remember reading anything about these superhero lawyers. This story is definitely worth reading. Hats off to the Broome County Bar Association. Their selfless pro bono service is inspirational.

Sindy Garey's telephone at the Broome County Bar Association keeps ringing -- five months after floodwaters wrecked local homes and businesses and left people's lives in financial tangles that call for a lawyer's advice.
Flood victims continue to seek free legal advice offered by Broome's bar, although the calls have slowed to about eight to 10 a week on issues ranging from bankruptcy to flood insurance to FEMA appeals, said Garey, executive director of the bar. That's down from a peak of about 40 calls a day for five or six weeks after floodwaters hit June 27.
Garey does legal triage, lining up flood victims with attorneys who are knowledgeable about their particular legal plights. She has a panel of about 70 volunteer attorneys to choose from, all members of Broome's bar, who've made time in their own legal careers to help people whose lives have been turned upside down by floodwaters. In the aftermath of June's flooding, the Broome bar offered victims a 30-minute free legal consultation. The volunteer lawyers, said Kathryn Grant Madigan, president-elect of New York's 70,000-member bar association, went above and beyond the call of pro bono work. New York's bar is the nation's largest voluntary association of lawyers.
Madigan said the Federal Emergency Management Agency was so impressed by how it all worked, it will use New York as a template for other states facing a natural disaster to help them set up systems to provide legal help for victims. "We have an absolutely amazing bar association," said Madigan, a Vestal attorney who coordinated the state and local effort. "They stepped up with no hesitation at all."

The pro bono champion of Canada

2006-11-20T15:31:00.000-05:00

is McCarthy Tetrault:

TORONTO, Nov. 16 /CNW/ - McCarthy Tétrault is proud to announce that it garnered the Canadian National Pro Bono Law Firm Award this evening at the first-ever National Pro Bono Conference, being held at the Metropolitan Hotelin Toronto on November 16 and 17, 2006. "While this recognition of our efforts is certainly an honour, we view pro bono work as a responsibility that our firm and the entire legal industry must continue to shoulder," said W. Iain Scott, McCarthy Tétrault Chair and CEO. "We are proud of the $1.2 million in pro bono services that 192 McCarthyTétrault lawyers contributed so far this year to communities across Canada in 2006, but there is still much work to be done. It is our hope that this award serves as an instrument of inspiration and change, beginning with the formation of Pro Bono Law organizations all across Canada."

Well said, Mr. Scott. The entire press release is worth reading. Congratulations to all concerned!

A Good Firm Model For Pro Bono

2006-11-19T15:53:00.000-05:00

...has been established at Atlanta's Kilpatrick & Stockton by making the Pro Bono Practice a full time Partner's responsibility. Debbie Segal has made that a successful strategy. As noted in the Fulton County Daily Report:

Since Segal joined Kilpatrick, the firm’s annual pro bono hours have almost tripled, from a total of 7,900 hours in 2000 to 27,500 hours last year, she said. Last year’s hours would be worth $8.3 million if charged at billable rates and amounted to 3.3 percent of the firm’s revenue. Eighty-two percent of Kilpatrick’s lawyers worked pro bono at least 20 hours, contributing to the firm’s No. 4 participation ranking and No. 17 overall spot last year in American Lawyer’s annual pro bono survey of the nation’s 200 largest law firms.

Pretty impressive if you ask us!!!!!

Death penalty double clutch

2006-10-28T15:17:00.000-04:00

Here's food for thought concerning when the death penalty is appropriate. What exactly justifies seeking imposition of the death penalty? Whatever standards there might be, are they consistently applied?

No death penalty sought in double slaying
By CHRIS BRISTOL YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC
Yakima County Prosecutor Ron Zirkle announced Friday he won't seek the death penalty in the execution-style slaying of a reputed drug dealer and his 3-year-old daughter.
Given pretrial costs of nearly $1.25 million, Zirkle's decision not to seek the death penalty against Junior Sanchez is sure to be seen as controversial. He earlier made the same decision with regard to Sanchez's co-defendant, Mario "Gato" Mendez. The prosecutor said ethics guidelines prevent him from discussing his rationale until the case goes to trial, and he predicted his decision will become more obvious at that stage.
He did say, however, that his decision was not based on any potential concerns prosecutors might have about the strength of the case. Nonetheless, Zirkle acknowledged the case has become controversial because of the enormous costs involved, which might have been avoided with a quicker decision.
"For months I've been trying to think of ways I could end this sooner because of the money that's being spent on this case, but I wasn't able to conclude the process sooner," he said. "These decisions are too important to be made quickly."
Sanchez, 24, and Mendez, 26, both face charges of aggravated first-degree murder in the February 2005 shooting deaths of 21-year-old Ricky Causor and his 3-year-old daughter, Mya. Causor's girlfriend, Michelle Kublic, was wounded in the attack. She was shot four times while shielding the couple's other daughter, 2-year-old Angelica, from the gunfire.

Fiddling while Darfur burns

2006-10-26T15:07:00.000-04:00

Enough already! The quote in The Sudan Tribune below from el-Bashir about his promise to God not to let Darfurian suffering be a pretext for foreign intervention is particularly galling. Note to world: DO SOMETHING!

US’s Rice confers with UN’s Annan as Darfur deteriorates
Thursday 26 October 2006 02:30.
Oct 25, 2006 (WASHINGTON) — The Bush administration declared Wednesday the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan is in a dangerous downward spiral. There was no indication, however, that President Omar el-Bashir was relenting in his refusal to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force despite reassurances the peacekeepers would not go after government leaders.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conferred by telephone with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Afterward, Rice’s spokesman, Sean McCormack, said, "We are very concerned about the situation there. It is not getting any better. We are concerned that it could well be getting worse."
Rice and Annan discussed the forced expulsion of Jan Pronk, Annan’s top aide in Sudan, and the importance of having the post filled quickly, either with Pronk or another U.N. diplomat, McCormack said. Rice called the ouster "extremely unfortunate," McCormack said. Rice and Stephen Hadley, the U.S. national security adviser, met at the White House late Tuesday with Andrew Natsios, Rice’s envoy to Sudan, who also met in Cairo, Egypt, with Arab League diplomats. Even while el-Bashir refuses to admit a U.N. peacekeeping force to take over from undermanned African Union peacekeepers, the United States is soliciting other countries for support in Darfur, particularly Sudan’s neighbors and Arab governments.
But el-Bashir is adamantly against what he calls "foreign intervention." "We have promised before God not to let Darfurians’ suffering be a pretext for foreign intervention or a subject for hostile media," el-Bashir was quoted as saying Tuesday. The Sudanese leader and other top officials have said they are concerned that the U.N. force could be used to track down and arrest leaders of the Sudanese government, McCormack said. "We have said that this is not the mandate of this U.N., force," he said, and the United States has asked Arab governments to reassure them on that score."We ask them to do that in every way that they possibly can," McCormack said.
The conflict in Darfur between government-backed Arab militia and the non-Arab population has killed about 200,000 people in three years and displaced some 2.5 million people.

Yes, there will be a capital court-martial!

2006-10-25T14:54:00.000-04:00

The suspense is over. The Army will seek the death penalty against two soldiers for the notorious rape-murder of a young Iraqi girl and her family. Keep in mind that a court-martial proceeds under Article II of the Constitution, not Article III. I will continue to watch this as it proceeds. The implications seem quite large to me on a number of levels. Aside from legalistic considerations, it will be interesting to learn what kinds of mitigation arguments are made if the defendants are found guilty and face the death penalty. Combat stress? Exactly what is combat stress anyway? To be continued.

8 GIs to be tried over killings
The Associated Press WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2006 EVANSVILLE, Indiana
Eight soldiers from the 101st Division of the U.S. Army will be court-martialed on charges of murdering Iraqi civilians, the military ordered Wednesday. Two of them face the death penalty for allegedly raping an Iraqi girl and killing her and her family.
The military authorities said they would seek the death penalty against Sergeant Paul Cortez and Private First Class Jesse Spielman in connection with the rape and murder in March of Abeer Qassim Hamzeh, 14, at her family's home in Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad. Specialist James Barker and Private First Class Bryan Howard are also accused in the rape and murders but death sentences will not be sought against them, the military said in a statement.
Four other soldiers face a separate court martial for the alleged murders of three men near Samarra. The rape-slaying case set off international outrage and led to a claim by a group linked to Al Qaeda that it had killed three soldiers of the 101st Division in retaliation. The case also increased demands for changes in an agreement that exempts U.S. soldiers from prosecution in Iraqi courts.
Spielman's attorneys expressed shock that their client faced the death penalty, citing evidence from a hearing in August that indicated he was not in the house when the rape and murders occurred. "Even according to the government's evidence that they're putting forth, Jesse isn't even a principal in murder and rape," said Craig Carlson, Spielman's attorney. "It surprises me that they're treating him like they're treating Green."
Former Private Steven Green, who was discharged for a personality disorder and arrested in North Carolina, will be tried in a U.S. court in Kentucky. In affidavits, Green was described as a central figure in the rape and murders. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and four counts of murder.

Ineffective assistance? Not this time!

2006-10-25T10:54:00.000-04:00

Well, you can't blame this prominent defense lawyer for trying. Believe me, this is a strategy which has occurred to virtually every trial defense counsel at one time or another. It is ironic that trial defense lawyers are vilified to a "fare thee well" by prosecutors (and often criminal court judges) while the trial is occurring, but they all become Clarence Darrows once the guilty verdict is read.

Lawyer claim that he botched case rejected By Michael Higgins, Tribune staff reporter. Published October 24, 2006
Despite a prominent defense attorney's insistence that he botched a murder trial in 1981, a state appellate court on Monday upheld the conviction in the case and agreed with the trial judge, who called the attorney's performance stellar. Randolph Stone, who directs the University of Chicago Law School's Mandel Legal Aid Clinic, blamed himself for failing to prove that his client was mentally ill and for not cross-examining two key witnesses at sentencing.
Stone took the blame in an affidavit he wrote for the state appellate defender's office, which sought to overturn the conviction of James Ford, 52, based on ineffective counsel. But the 1st District Appellate Court in Chicago, ruling on what it called an unexpected argument, refused to grant Ford a new trial.
"The judge said Stone turned in `a stellar performance' [and] was `on his game,'" Judge Robert Cahill wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. "Our review of the record leads us to concur with the trial judge. [Stone] has been too hard on himself." Stone, who also has served as the public defender for Cook County, said Monday that he was disappointed in the result.

Read the whole story here.

Ineffective assistance as an effective defense strategy?

2006-09-24T18:38:00.000-04:00

I have often wondered why trial defense counsel aren't more receptive to "ineffective assistance of counsel" based appeals. Sure, you hate to admit making a mistake, and no one likes criticism, but then again, it's neither your life nor your liberty which is at stake. Here's one defense counsel who embraces the idea.

WEST PALM BEACH -- Nathaniel Brazill, serving a 28-year prison sentence for fatally shooting a Lake Worth Middle School teacher in 2000, will get a new hearing at which he will claim his trial attorney did not effectively represent him, an appeals court ruled Wednesday. *****
Brazill, who filed the motion on his own behalf, has an unlikely advocate in his bid to get a new trial."I'm glad to see he got a new hearing and I hope he does get some relief," said Robert Udell, Brazill's trial attorney. "I'd love to see him get a new trial.
"Ineffective assistance of counsel appeals - as they are commonly known - are standard post-conviction motions brought by inmates. Udell said he understands this and that any lawyer who takes such an appeal personally is "a weenie."
"I've been doing this for 30 years and I've never understood lawyers who get up on their high horse when clients file (ineffective assistance of counsel) motions," Udell said. "If my client is in jail for anything I did or didn't do, I'll be the first one to say they deserve relief from the courts."

Of course, embedding a trial with ineffective assistance should never be a trial strategy, should it? Here's the whole story.

Go George! Clooney confronts the U.N. on Darfur

2006-09-15T12:23:00.000-04:00

This story really impresses me. George Clooney is actually doing something about the Darfur emergency. His strong words to the U.N. should be yet another wake up call to the world.

Inside, Clooney told the U.N.'s most powerful body that it must send replacements for the African Union's 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur when its mandate expires at the end of the month. If it did not, aid workers would have to leave and the 2.5 million displaced people who depend on them would die.

"After Sept. 30 you won't need the U.N. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones," the 45-year-old actor warned. The Sudanese government has refused to approve the replacement of African Union peacekeepers by a U.N. force, saying it would violate the country's sovereignty.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million have fled their homes since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government. A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting among rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

"The United States has called it genocide," Clooney told council members. "For you it's called ethnic cleansing. But make no mistake _ it is the first genocide of the 21st century. And if it continues unchecked it will not be the last."

In stark words he told the U.N. diplomats: "In many ways it is unfair, but it is nonetheless true that this genocide will be on your watch. How you deal with it will be your legacy, your Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz." "We were brought up to believe that the U.N. was formed to ensure that the Holocaust could never happen again. We believe in you so strongly. We need you so badly. If not the U.N., then who?" Clooney asked.

Clooney is telling it like it is. In this post 9/11/2001 world, we have become preoccupied with our own security. The poor people of Darfur have not made it on to our radar screen in any meaningful way. How can this happen??? Again I ask, where are our real leaders? I'm ready to vote for George Clooney.

All gave some. Some gave all.

2006-09-09T17:04:00.000-04:00

On behalf of everyone who has ever given even an hour of time pro bono publico, I salute the memory of the heroic public servants who died five years ago on September 11, 2001. If there were a pro bono Hall of Fame, it would stand at Ground Zero with tributes to each of these men and women at the entrance. The story below is but one of many.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tour guide Ann Van Hine is rewarded with tears, not tips, and frequently reduces visitors to an awed silence when she tells them how her husband, a firefighter, died at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

"Sometimes I feel bad because I look at people's faces as I'm telling my story and it's like I've just blown them away," Van Hine said after leading 25 tourists from as far afield as Italy and Australia on a tour around the perimeter of the gaping hole known as Ground Zero. She says younger visitors often chat freely with her before the tour, but afterwards, "They don't know what to say to me."

As she is about to climb a steep flight of stairs to a walkway over the highway west of the site, Van Hine asks visitors to imagine climbing stairs loaded up with firefighting equipment. "The firefighters got up to about the 70th floor, so it would have been like doing what we're doing 35 times."

She and her husband, Richard Bruce Van Hine, had two daughters aged 14 and 17 at the time of the attacks that killed 2,992 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. "Ten days after, I asked my girls where they thought Daddy was and they said they thought Daddy was in heaven," she said, adding that she visited Ground Zero on September 28, 2001.

If you see a firefighter, police officer, or emergency worker this Monday, September 11, take the time to thank them for what they are doing. If you know any men or women in uniform or any members of their families, you might also thank them in any way you deem best. We owe them big time.

Vox clamantis in Darfur: Can anyone hear it?

2006-08-31T12:41:00.000-04:00

While it's business as usual at the United Nations (what with Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and all), the poor people of Darfur are about to get another genocidal thrashing at the hands of murderous thugs posing as human beings. When will this horrible situation be acted upon by the decent people of the world? How can our leaders ignore this any longer. We all know the answer, don't we? So, what are we going to do about it?

Shaky Darfur Peace at Risk as New Fighting Looms By LYDIA POLGREEN Published: August 31, 2006 EL FASHER, Sudan, Aug. 30 So far, negotiations over a proposed United Nations force to shore up the shaky peace in Darfur have limped along with no sign of compromise. The opposing sides in the conflict now seem headed toward a large-scale military confrontation, bringing Darfur to the edge of a new abyss — perhaps the deepest it has faced.

“Unfortunately, things seem to be headed in that direction,” said Gen. Collins Ihekire, commander of the beleaguered 7,000-member African Union force that is enforcing a fragile peace agreement between the government and one rebel group. Nearly four months after signing the agreement, the government is preparing a fresh assault against the rebel groups that refused to sign. Years of conflict have already killed hundreds of thousands of people here and sent 2.5 million fleeing their homes. But that may be a prelude of the death likely to come from further fighting, hunger and disease. In the past few months, killings of aid workers and hijackings of their vehicles, mostly by rebel groups, have forced aid groups to curtail programs to feed, clothe and shelter hundreds of thousands of people.

Why can't an accused plead guilty to capital murder?

2006-08-11T15:08:00.000-04:00

There has to be something wrong if a defendant like this who is accused of capital murder cannot plead guilty. In most cases where the evidence of guilt is overwhelming, it does little to help a defendant avoid the death penalty at the sentencing phase if he cannot show at least the beginnings of remorse by acknowledging his culpability, especially where a jury will shortly thereafter determine whether there are sufficient mitigating circumstances precluding eligibility for death. The idea that he will be better off hoping for error as he requires the prosecution to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt seems highly speculative and very shaky to me. It is far more probable that the presentation of graphic, emotionally devastating evidence of guilt to a jury who believes the defendant is denying obvious guilt will create a hanging mood before the sentencing phase begins. Although the rest of this story offers some possible explanations, my sympathies extend to the defendant who tried to enter an immediate plea of guilty. There is nothing stopping a subsequent psychological examination regarding mental capacity, etc. Guilty pleas can be withdrawn if improvidently entered.

Haq tries to enter guilty plea By Natalie Singer Seattle Times staff reporter

Naveed Afzal Haq, accused in the Jewish Federation shootings, confers with his attorney C. Wesley Richards on Thursday. The man accused of killing one woman and wounding five others at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle surprised everyone in the courtroom, including his own attorney, when he attempted to plead guilty Thursday to nine felonies, including a charge that could result in the death penalty.
But after objections from Naveed Afzal Haq's attorney, who said he was concerned about Haq's mental competency, the judge ordered the arraignment to be continued until Tuesday, and no pleas were entered. After the charges against him were read aloud in King County Superior Court on Thursday morning, Haq turned and whispered into the ear of defense attorney C. Wesley Richards."My client has indicated he would like to enter guilty pleas," Richards told Judge Michael Trickey. "I have concerns about his reasoning."

Pro bono legal services under attack in Iran

2006-08-09T19:03:00.000-04:00

This report from Amnesty International is deeply disturbing.

Amnesty International is alarmed at the continuing erosion in the human rights situation in Iran, highlighted by the announcement that the Centre for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR, in Persian, Kanoon-e Modafean Hogooge Bashar), co-founded by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, has been banned.
The banning of the CDHR, and threats of arrest against its members should they continue their work, strikes at the heart of the struggle for human rights in Iran. The targeting of the CDHR is symbolic of the climate of intimidation and harassment endured by Iran’s community of human rights defenders in the course of their work.
On 3 August, the Ministry of Interior announced that the CDHR had been banned. A statement by the Secretariat of the Committee for Article 10 of the Law on Party and Organization Activities said “…any activity under the name of Kanoon-e Modafean Hogooge Bashar is illegal and violators will be prosecuted accordingly”.
The CDHR was established in 2002, by Shirin Ebadi. Its members include some of Iran’s leading human rights defenders and lawyers. The CDHR has made an inestimable contribution to the development of a culture of human rights in Iran, and the efforts of other human rights defenders in Iran have been bolstered its work.
The CDHR has three stated roles, reporting violations of human rights in Iran; providing pro-bono legal representation to political prisoners; and support to the families of political prisoners. Its members have pursued high profile cases of impunity, and defended high profile victims of human rights violations. Lawyers for the CDHR represented the family of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian journalist who died in Evin prison in June 2003, and prisoner of conscience Akbar Ganji.

In the midst of all the media confusion about what is going on in the Mideast, this sure seems to me like a very troubling objective development. Think what you want about Amnesty International, but they occasionally are spot on the heart of the matter.

Combat stress defense?

2006-08-08T12:21:00.000-04:00

Here is more on the rape/murder case being presented to the U.S. military court (Article 32 investigation) in Baghdad. It looks like "combat stress" may be offered as a defense of some kind. Again, death penalty trial counsel are often asked to defend what many would think is "the indefensible."

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. military court deciding whether four soldiers should be court-martialled for rape and murder heard on Tuesday how troops were "driven nuts" by combat stress and got high on Iraqi cough syrup. Private First Class Justic Cross described how conditions "pretty much crushed the platoon", which lived in constant fear of being killed in the Mahmudiya area south of Baghdad where the rape and murders took place in March. "It drives you nuts. You feel like every step you might get blown up. You just hit a point where you're like, 'If I die today, I die'. You're just walking a death walk," he said.
On Monday, the court at Camp Liberty heard graphic testimony of how three of the soldiers took turns raping a 14-year-old Iraqi girl before murdering her and her family. The case has outraged Iraqis and led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops' immunity from prosecution under Iraqi law. Mahmudiya is part of what Iraqis call the "Triangle of Death" for its frequent attacks and kidnappings by insurgents and al Qaeda militants.
Private First Class Jesse Spielman, 21, Specialist James Barker, 23, Sergeant Paul Cortez, 23 and Private First Class Bryan Howard, 19, face charges of rape and murder among others. If court-martialled after the Article 32 hearing -- the military's equivalent of a U.S. grand jury -- and found guilty, they could face the death penalty. The hearing began on Sunday and is expected to last several days.

Will there be a capital court martial?

2006-08-06T13:56:00.000-04:00

I will be keeping my eye on this case as it progresses. It will almost certainly raise important questions about the death penalty. For those who practice in this area, the brutality of the alleged crimes is not unprecedented. In the U.S., charges like these are almost always tried as capital offenses. Can there be a "fair trial" under these circumstances? Is there a difference between Article 2 and Article 3 courts when it comes to the death penalty?

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An Iraqi army medic described a scene of horror to a U.S. military hearing on Sunday that will decide if four U.S. soldiers are to be court-martialled for the murder and rape of an Iraqi girl and the killing of her family.
The medic, who was not named, said that when he entered the house in Mahmudiya in March, he found 14-year-old Abeer Qasim Hamza al-Janabi naked with her legs spread and burnt from the waist up, with a single bullet wound beneath her left eye. He also told the hearings he had found her six-year-old sister in an adjacent room with the back of her head blown out, and the bodies of both parents riddled with bullets.
The Mahmudiya case, the fifth involving serious crimes being investigated by the U.S. military in Iraq, has outraged Iraqis and led Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to call for a review of foreign troops' immunity from Iraqi prosecution. The court heard testimony from three Iraqi witnesses on Sunday, the first day of proceedings. But the media covering the event were only allowed to record the comments of the medic, who said he was ill for weeks after witnessing the crime scene.
Military prosecutors are expected to lay out their case against Private First Class Jesse Spielman, Specialist James Barker, Sergeant Paul Cortez and Private First Class Bryan Howard, who face charges of rape and murder among others. If court-martialled and found guilty, they could face the death penalty.

More Darfur bluster

2006-06-21T14:26:00.000-04:00

If you ever feel like complaining about posturing politicians in the U.S., imagine the plight of the citizens of the Darfur region of Sudan. Recolonization? Ridiculous--but maybe not a bad idea if this keeps up much longer.

Khartoum - Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir has voiced strong opposition to the deployment of Western troops in war-torn Darfur, vowing his country would not be "recolonised"."I swear that there will not be any international military intervention in Darfur as long as I am in power," Beshir said late on Monday."Sudan, which was the first country south of the Sahara to gain independence, cannot now be the first country to be recolonised," he said.The UN wants to replace an embattled and under-equipped contingent of African troops in the western region of Darfur with its own peacekeepers in an attempt to shore up a fragile peace deal. - Sapa-AFP

I can't wait to see how the U.N. responds to this. Of course, the U.S. action in Iraq and Afghanistan, coupled with the latest rumblings from a nuclear aspiring Iran, can only make the situation more difficult. How can the rest of the world ever muster the resolve to take action in Darfur? Is the situation as hopeless as it seems? Where is real leadership when you need it!

Zarqawi and the death penalty

2006-06-10T10:01:00.000-04:00

The death of the villainous Abu Musab al-Zarqawi forces me to come to grips with what at first might seem to be diametrically conflicting personal beliefs. I am inalterably opposed to the death penalty. Yet, I welcomed the news of Zarqawi's death. I wanted it to happen, and I am glad it did. Why don't I feel the same way about the men and women sitting on death row today? I don't, and here's why. Whatever you might think about the Iraq war, there seems to me to be little doubt that the American military has been heavily engaged in an armed struggle with enemies who would, if they could, fundamentally change our way of life. I believe there is a very real protective perimeter around our society, and we have our armed forces to thank for maintaining it. The things we enjoy most--the arts, sports, cultural endeavors, careers, family stuff, etc.--are made possible only because that perimeter has been steadfastly maintained by the sacrifices of generations of soldiers, sailors, aviators, and Marines. Life inside the perimeter is good. Here, we live according to the rule of law. Life outside the perimeter is savage. There, the rule of law gives way to the brutality of war. Efforts to establish and enforce a "law of war" have never really succeeded. Enter Zarqawi. Videotaped beheadings, suicide bombings, indiscriminate killings of civilians, mass executions, and other similar purposeful tactics cannot possibly exist or be tolerated inside or outside our perimeter. The news stories today are filled with speculation about whether Zarqawi survived the initial bombing and was subsequently "shot" by American troops. The fact that this kind of questioning is seriously considered is stark evidence of how highly valued the rule of law is inside the perimeter. Sometimes we even lose track of where the perimeter ends. Exit Zarqawi, and good riddance. There is certainly much room inside the perimeter for differences of opinion about the death penalty. I have mine, and it is based primarily on my own ideal notion of "civilization." There is something about the methodical, step by step, phases and stages procedures leading up to an execution which is just too "premeditated" for me. Perhaps I can justifiably be accused of silly idealism, but I prefer a society which deliberately spares life under all circumstances. Like all other citizens, however, I vote only once, and I commit myself to abide by the rule of law as it is enacted by our legislatures, enforced by our executives, and interpreted by our courts. In the meantime, I will continue to work pro bono on capital cases, and I applaud the countless other lawyers "inside our perimeter" who are doing the same thing on a daily basis.

Making a difference

2006-06-10T09:35:00.000-04:00

This Philadelphia columnist has come to the conclusion which motivates many a pro bono capital defense lawyer:

If you're on the fence about capital punishment, as I have been - vacillating between horror at the growing number of death-row inmates who turn out to be innocent, and rage at the brutal killers responsible for the daily carnage in our streets - this case may settle the issue for you. It did for me.

This case involves the work of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius partners Michael Banks and J. Gordon Cooney, Jr. When they first started representing convicted murderer John Thompson, they weren't thinkng about exonerating an innocent man:

What's deeply chilling about the Thompson case is that there was nothing at first glance to suggest he was innocent - nothing to make it a moral cause celebre. "There were no red flags," Banks said at a Philadelphia Bar Association presentation about the case last week. Thompson was exonerated only because Banks and Cooney, partners at Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, wanted to do a pro-bono capital case to ensure that a death-row inmate had received a fair trial.

This story is now a movie starring Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. My guess is that John Thompson would cast Messrs. Banks and Cooney in the starring roles. These guys really made a difference.

DLA Piper takes the pledge big time

2006-06-06T09:56:00.000-04:00

This remarkable commitment to pro bono service deserves the highest praise.

DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary's pro bono arm has picked three international projects and announced how many hours its lawyers will commit to pro bono work this year. New Perimeter, the firm's not-for-profit affiliate, which coordinates its overseas pro bono activities, has committed more than 13,000 lawyer hours, with an estimated value of more than $6m (£3.19m), for 2006. The three projects that will benefit from the firm's input this year are the South Africa Litigation Centre, the Global Foodbanking Network and the CHF International Micro Financing Project.

News like this more often than not goes completely unnoticed. Indeed, there are countless numbers of lawyers doing millions of hours of annual pro bono service nationally and world wide without any notice at all. It makes me very proud of my profession. Nice going, DLA Piper!

Bickel & Brewer leads the way

2006-06-04T14:34:00.000-04:00

This story is very cool. John Bickel and Bill Brewer are two very successful, high powered lawyers. For them to create a charitable foundation like this speaks volumes about who they really are.

Dallas-based lawyers John Bickel and Bill Brewer say they take pride not only in providing legal service for their clients, but also in taking a genuine interest in the communities where those clients live. So, in 1995, the 34-lawyer law firm of Bickel & Brewer decided to create its own charitable foundation using that same philosophy to benefit underserved members of the community.

Mr. Brewer said the firm, which has offices in downtown Dallas, New York and in a storefront in South Dallas, started the Future Leaders Program – FLP – in 2001 after dealing with cases involving North Texas school boards that did not offer families access to their decision-making process.

"The firm's focus on education is the result of the pro bono work that the firm does in the storefront office," Mr. Brewer said.

The Future Leaders Program provides after-school academic resources and leadership training for middle school students from South Dallas and Oak Cliff.

Nice going, John and Bill. Thanks for all you do.

Haditha dampens hopes for Darfur

2006-06-02T11:51:00.000-04:00

As this excerpt from an editorial by Daniel Henninger in the Wall Street Journal on-line edition astutely concludes, the Haditha incident will have seriously negative repercussions in Darfur, as well as in any other areas of the world in which murderous tyranny flourishes. Things do not look good for benevolent military intervention (if there is such a thing) any time soon in any other world hot spot.

Two major military reports will come out soon on the Haditha incident, and no one will gainsay justice if that is required. But the atmosphere around this event is going to get uncontrollably manic, and that will feed the dark, inward-turning sentiments already poisoning the country's mood over issues like the immigration debate. Good for Democrats? Don't count on it. After this, the public appetite for a Democratic president's "humanitarian" military intervention in a Darfur or East Timor will be close to zero.

Haditha

2006-06-01T18:42:00.000-04:00

As the story about the U.S. Marine action in Haditha unfolds, let us all pause and reflect upon the type of emotional provocations which in real life lead to homicides. Pro bono lawyers who represent defendants in capital cases are used to this kind of introspective reflection. How can people do these things? How can they be defended? We've learned the answer, but it's not an easy one. The true facts about what happened in Haditha may take a while to become known. Let's wait, but let's not move on without learning.

This is big, Mac

2006-05-27T11:50:00.000-04:00

The charitable spirit that underlies civic action like this should be recognized and applauded. This is really a big deal in my book, and McDonald's deserves a lot of credit for it.

OAK BROOK, Ill., May 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- McDonald's today announced it is the 2006 recipient of the Chicago Legal Clinic, Inc. Charles J. O'Laughlin Memorial Award. McDonald's was recognized with this award for providing professional legal services and advocacy to low income, elderly and disabled Cook County residents and public service organizations in the Chicago-land area in need of legal counsel or representation. The award was presented during the Clinic's 22nd Annual Awards dinner at the Hilton hotel in downtown Chicago earlier this month.

Nice going, McDonald's. I may even stop in and buy a burger for the first time in many years. Here's the rest of the story.

How many pro bono lawyers does it take to . . . .

2006-05-27T11:34:00.000-04:00

How many pro bono lawyers will it take to deal with the situation described below? What will happen when these "undocumented immigrants" become felons? We all need to take a deep breath and try to visualize what is going to be happening very soon with respect to law enforcement, individual rights, and civil liberties. Are we really willing to pay the price for the supposed benefits?

NEW YORK – As the immigration reform debate heats up in Congress, rumors of immigration raids have spread widely in immigrant communities. Consequently, undocumented immigrants have tried to stay under the radar, many of them avoiding going out because they fear the raids. Immigration lawyers are advising immigrants to keep in mind that immigrants, documented or undocumented, have protected rights under the United States Constitution.

Chen Pei-Yi, a New York attorney who is running for District 2 judge, said that before any immigration reform bills can take effect, the Senate and the House of Representatives must first reconcile their votes.Chen said, however, that undocumented Chinese immigrants often don’t know their basic rights. When they are questioned by the police, their lack of knowledge often results in deportation. Undocumented immigrants should know that they have the right to remain silent as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution when questioned by the police.

In many states, people questioned by the police are required by law to give their true name, but only a judge can order a person to give more information. When questioned by the police, Chen advised, the less you say, the better. Chen also emphasized that any law enforcement must have a search warrant to search private property. The search warrant should show the reason for the search. If a police officer does not have a search warrant, people can refuse to be searched. However, police officers can search any person’s clothing to see if he is holding a weapon. In such a situation, Chen advises that people retain witnesses who can testify that the person was searched against his or her will.

Whether documented or undocumented, everyone has the right to see a lawyer, Chen said. The police must stop questioning if a person requests to see a lawyer. Chen advised people to carry the contact information for their lawyers.

If a police officer stops you, Chen said it is important to put both hands where the police officer can see them. If you feel ill or are injured while stopped by the police, you must request medical help and get contact information from witnesses at the scene. Chen said that many Chinese who don’t know English might be pressured into signing documents that they do not understand, thinking that if they signed, then they can go home. But signing these forms might have serious consequences. For example, you might inadvertently give up your right to see an immigration judge.

Chen emphasized the importance of seeing a lawyer to make sure that you understand the forms. Although undocumented immigrants do not have the right to a government-provided attorney, immigration officials have the legal obligation to provide a list of pro-bono lawyers who can help undocumented immigrants.

Gulfport lawyer honored for post-Katrina work

2006-05-23T10:35:00.000-04:00

This is a real news story in my book. It is gratifying to see the Biloxi SunHerald reporting on it.

GULFPORT - A passion for promoting and providing pro bono legal services to the indigent and the "working poor" has earned Felicia Dunn Burkes the Magnolia Bar Association's highest honor. The state's first organization for black lawyers honored Burkes earlier this month with its award for outstanding community service. She also was honored for organizing a workshop on post-Katrina legal issues and a summit that, in part, assisted citizens wanting restoration of voting rights.

Nice going, Ms. Burkes. You have many admirers. In case you missed it, here's a link to a video that gives some idea of the environment in which Ms. Burkes has been working.

Lasting doubts

2006-05-22T10:35:00.000-04:00

This is what it's like for those who do pro bono death penalty work.

I paused on Wednesday, as I do every May 17, to remember a man who was executed for a murder I am certain he didn't commit. Timing is everything, of course, and former Gov. George Ryan's decision in 2003 to empty Illinois' Death Row came too late to save my client and friend, Girvies Davis, who was put to death on May 17, 1995. By the time I got involved in the case, 15 years after the trial and five months before the execution, nothing short of finding the real murderer would have saved Davis' life. Our criminal justice system admits mistakes only when it has to, and belated attempts to cast doubt on a verdict are usually swept aside, regardless of merit, unless the defendant can actually prove his innocence. Proving a defendant's innocence, though, is a tall task. Because there were no witnesses against Davis, there were no statements to recant; because there was no forensic evidence, there were no DNA tests to run.

The attorney client privilege permits defense lawyers to get very close to their clients and to hear things that no prosecutor will ever hear. Invariably, this leads to judgments and insights that have lasting effects on the pro bono capital defense lawyer. There is simply no way for anyone who has not done this type of work to understand the depth of Mr. Schwartz's feelings that lead him to remember his client on each May 17 for the past 11 years. There are many different equally valid perspectives from which to consider the appropriateness of having a death penalty. I applaud Mr. Schwartz for expressing his.

The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.

2006-05-17T18:31:00.000-04:00

Henry VI, Part 2. It wasn't meant to be good when Dick the Butcher said it, and there's nothing good happening here either.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian police arrested the country's leading rights lawyer and five other rights activists Wednesday, as a government newspaper rebuked those who had signed a petition calling for an improvement in Syrian-Lebanese relations. Anwar al-Bunni was dragged away in front of his home by security forces, his family said. His brother Akram al-Bunni said that the lawyer was heading out of his house late Wednesday to go to an English class when two men approached him and asked him to get into a car.

Let's keep an eye on this.

An act of Congress

2006-05-16T17:59:00.000-04:00

This isn't exactly the kind of act of Congress that I was hoping for regarding the Darfur genocide, but it will do for today. If only the rest of our national legislature would get off their ****s.

Seven members of the Congressional Black Caucus were arrested at the Embassy of Sudan on Tuesday while protesting conditions in the nation's Darfur region. "We will not tolerate genocide," said Rep. Mel Watt, D-N.C., the caucus chairman. "We are saying to Sudan this has got to stop." The seven were taken away in Secret Service cars after blocking the entrance to an embassy. They were released a short time later after paying $50 fines.

Nice going, noble members of the Congressional Black Caucus! Update: Here is a link to a video of the demonstration and arrests (courtesy of PoliticsTV.com). I got very emotional watching it. These are daring steps taken by brave members of Congress. It sent shivers down my spine to see them arrested, cuffed, and manhandled into police vehicles. We need to do something.

Too much police power?

2006-05-13T15:16:00.000-04:00

In my opinion, there is grave danger to our societal future posed by the prospect that new immigration legislation may soon make conduct felonious which had not previously been so. The risk, of course, is that large numbers of people residing in this country, regardless of citizenship status, will not alter their conduct to abide by the letter of the new law. This will make them felons. It is the duty of the executive branch of our federal government to detect, track down, arrest, prosecute, and jail felons. Law enforcement, as ideal as it may be in the abstract, is seldom perfect and often flawed in its execution by officers and agents who make mistakes and whose zeal can be nothing short of breathtaking in its invasiveness and righteousness. It is not unreasonable for law abiding citizens to be concerned that no office, business, house, or home will be immune from an aggressively hot pursuit of this new class of felons with or without search warrants. Modern surveillance technology can and should be applied to detect felonious conduct and to arrest all who engage in, aid, or abet it. Here, it will almost certainly be applied with a vengeance on a scale never before experienced in this country. Are we really ready for this? Think hard. How much police power is too much police power?

The Greatest Generation

2006-05-10T12:39:00.000-04:00

Now here's something that gets my attention.

It is perhaps ironic that Rufus Johnson was forbidden from swimming in the city pool where he grew up in Pennsylvania, since it was that denial that set him on a path of historical significance.A decorated War World II veteran, an accomplished lawyer and black-belt Karate expert, Johnson, who is black, is now retired and living in the Hill Country. Despite the effects of age on the body after nearly a century, Johnson doesn’t wear reading glasses; has a broad, toothy smile and hearty laugh; and gives a firm hand shake to anyone he meets. He also carries assorted pocket knives wherever he goes. “I’ve enjoyed all of my life,” Johnson said. This month, he celebrated his 95th birthday with a party at the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park in Fredericksburg.********************************

After the military, Johnson set up practice in California, where he pushed for a public defender position and helped establish the practice of lawyers performing pro bono work. “I settled in San Bernardino, because at that time there was only one black lawyer and there was at least 30,000 Negroes, but it turned out all of my clients were white,” Johnson said.When asked why his clients were white, Johnson didn’t hesitate. “They wanted to win a case,” he said. Not all of his clients were white. In 1964, Johnson went before the California Supreme Court representing Navajos who were arrested two years earlier during a religious ceremony involving peyote, a hallucinogenic cactus. Johnson won the case, which still stands today.

The rest of the marvelous story of Rufus Johnson is here. Happy birthday indeed, Mr. Johnson. You have many admirers.

Darfur: Lost in translation

2006-05-08T14:56:00.000-04:00

This can't be good:

Darfur Refugees Kill Translator in Sudan By BISHR EL-TOUNI , 05.08.2006, 02:13 PM

Residents of a Darfur refugee camp hacked an African Union translator to death Monday shortly after the U.N. humanitarian chief rushed out of the same camp when demonstrators attacked another translator who was part of his entourage, U.N. spokesmen said. Both attacks were in Kalma camp near the city of Nyala in south Darfur, visited by Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in New York said he was told there were two attacks. The first attack was against a non-governmental organization staffer, which prompted the departure of Egeland and his staff, Dujarric said. The second occurred after Egeland left, when the African Union compound in the camp was destroyed by its residents, he added. "It is our understanding that an African Union translator was hacked to death," Dujarric said. Earlier, U.N. spokeswoman Dawn Blalock said Egeland and his entourage had rushed out of the camp when demonstrators demanding the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers attacked a translator. They accused the translator of supporting the feared Janjaweed, the pro-government militia blamed for widespread atrocities in Darfur, she said.

The rest of the story is here. The misery being inflicted upon the poor and displaced in the Darfur region of the Sudan is just horrific. Only desperation of the worst sort could lead to events like this. Again I ask, what will the rest of us do about this? Have Afghanistan and Iraq permanently removed the possibility of U.S. or U.N. intervention as peacekeepers to stave off humanitarian disaster and even genocide? Can't someone see their way around this corner? Where are the real leaders in this world?

Hurling pro bono publico

2006-05-07T17:38:00.000-04:00

The Florida Justice Institute and the Florida Bar Foundation have teamed up to help indigent defendants and new lawyers to find each other with some interesting side effects.

During her opening trial statement, Sherylle Gordon was so nervous that she felt nauseous. The 36-year-old Miami law firm associate was arguing a civil rights case in April 2005 before U.S. District Judge William Dimitrouleas and a 12-person jury. She says she kept thinking about how her client, convicted felon Henry LaFavors, was counting on her to prove his claim that Broward Sheriff's Office deputies allowed a police dog to attack and injure him during his arrest on outstanding felony warrants even though he had already been subdued.
It was new territory for Gordon, a commercial litigator at Clarke Silverglate Campbell Williams & Montgomery. She had no civil rights law experience and no experience as lead attorney in a jury trial. "You go in and you think, 'I'm going to hurl,' " Gordon recalled with a laugh. "But every day it got better." Gordon got that trial experience through the Volunteer Lawyers' Program, which is sponsored by the nonprofit Florida Justice Institute and partly funded by The Florida Bar Foundation. The program provides private legal representation to hundreds of indigent Floridians each year in civil and criminal cases. Since 1978, the Florida Justice Institute has brought class action lawsuits in areas such as housing discrimination and prisoner civil rights.

The entire article is here. Any program that has Ben Reid of Carlton Fields in it is going to be good. He is one heckuva trial lawyer.

Mississippi: The Invisible Coast

2006-05-04T10:25:00.000-04:00

If you think the Katrina devastation story is ancient history, take a look at this video.

D. C. Bar honors "Servants of Justice"

2006-04-26T12:50:00.000-04:00

This is the kind of news I love reading about. The law firms of Wiley Rein & Fielding and Zuckerman Spaeder should be very proud of their partners Ted Howard and David Reiser.

With 80,000 members of the D.C. Bar Association, the nation's capital has more lawyers -- and lobbyists -- per capita than any other city in America, so what sets Ted A. Howard and David A. Reiser apart?

"There are a lot of lawyers in D.C. who do a lot of good work, but they are not as quiet about doing it," said Jonathan M. Smith, executive director of the Legal Aid Society of the District of Columbia. "Ted and David in important ways have undertaken to represent the poor and given tremendous amounts of time to ensure that justice is equal in the District."

The legal services organization celebrates its 74th anniversary this evening at a gala honoring Mr. Howard and Mr. Reiser each as a "Servant of Justice." The dinner at the Capital Hilton is the public service agency's major annual fundraising event. Humility is the watchword for Mr. Howard and Mr. Reiser, both 49. Each said he was surprised to be selected for the honor and accepted it on behalf of the countless "unsung heroes," to give them incentive to keep on defending indigent clients. * * * * * * * Mr. Howard and Mr. Reiser may bill their private clients $350 to $500 an hour, but the volunteer work for Legal Aid, as Mr. Howard said, allows him to "stay grounded" and have a positive impact on people with day-to-day legal problems "who don't have the capacity to reach in their pockets and offer a $100,000 retainer." Though both men have earned reputations for being strident advocates in the courtroom, both are painfully reticent to speak about themselves in private. For his part, Mr. Reiser's voice gets louder, he draws closer to the edge of his seat and waxes passionately only after being prompted about his clients' or the tenants' rights.

The soft-spoken Mr. Howard remains reserved, only a twitch under his eyes revealing the passion that surfaces when he talks about saving a client from execution. Mr. Howard, who maintains a commercial practice with Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP, also has a thriving pro bono practice that includes issues dealing with the death penalty, DNA tests, AIDS in prison, jail overcrowding and consumer law. He also is representing a group of Montgomery County parents in a class-action lawsuit against the school system for the way in which it tests students to determine who is eligible for the gifted-and-talented program. Mr. Reiser, with Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, was a criminal and civil litigant for more than 15 years in the D.C. Public Defender's Service, where he served as lead counsel in the case that closed the Cedar Knoll facility for city juveniles. He worked at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, has taught at the Georgetown University Law Center and helped Legal Aid establish its Appellate Advocacy Project.

The rest of the story is here. Nice going Mr. Howard and Mr. Reisier. You make us all look better.

Osama bin Laden threatens proposed peacekeepers in Darfur?

2006-04-24T12:23:00.001-04:00

This kind of political opportunism is absolutely mind bending in its evil. Now the U.N. is being threatened if it attempts to intervene in the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history. Go figure.

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Osama bin Laden issued new threats in an audiotape broadcast on Arab television Sunday and accused the United States and Europe of supporting a "Zionist" war on Islam by cutting off funds to the Hamas-led Palestinian government. He also urged followers to go to Sudan, his former base, to fight a proposed U.N. peacekeeping force.

Here is the rest of the AP story.

Darfur's violence spills into Chad

2006-04-17T20:16:00.000-04:00

Have I mentioned Darfur lately? The situation continues to worsen. Please read this. How can this happen? We have only ourselves to ask.

Darfur is described by aid workers as "bandit country" where armed gangs - many of whom are thought to have backing from the Chadian and Sudanese governments – rape and plunder local communities.

Explicitly accusing Sudan of backing the rebels, Chad on Friday broke diplomatic ties with Sudan and expelled the Sudanese Ambassador. Khartoum's foreign ministry has repeatedly denied Chad's claims that it is backing anti-Deby militia. * * * * *

Analysts have been warning for months that the worsening mob rule and violence spilling over from Darfur into eastern Chad, and an escalating proxy-war between Sudan-backed insurgents and Deby loyalists, threatens to produce a new humanitarian crisis, as well as cutting off much-needed supplies to the quarter million Chadians and Sudanese already displaced by fighting.

Currently the AU has 7,000 troops in Darfur - an arid and barren landlocked region larger in size than France - which analysts say have failed to stop the violence. The UN estimates more than 200,000 civilians have already been killed by fighting in the region. Attempts by the UN to establish a force in the area have been blocked by Sudan. In mid-March the Brussels-based conflict analysis NGO International Crisis Group warned that the international strategy for dealing with the Darfur crisis was at a "dead end", and recommended a UN-led force be sent to Darfur immediately.

A better definition of pro bono

2006-04-17T17:59:00.000-04:00

I completely agree with the sentiments expressed in this story:

As a 22-year practicing attorney who travels to work via a 15-year-old car or bicycle, I must respond to Charlie Mitchell's column (" 'Equal justice' can be much fun as driving a Lexus," April 6) lest the public get the impression that Mississippi lawyers only get satisfaction from procuring a Lexus rather than providing legal services to the poor. Every day, Mississippi lawyers give away many hours of uncompensated legal work or legal work at low cost. Whether it is called pro bono is beside the point. It is legal work performed at little or no cost for people who can't afford to pay for it. Pro bono work should not be limited to cases taken on a totally uncompensated basis at the outset. Court-appointed lawyers in Hinds County provide a service to indigent defendants at the 20-year-old rate of $45 per hour - a rate below plumbers. Is not this providing a service to poor people who cannot afford counsel?

Again, pro bono publico means "for the public good." It does not and should not mean "works for free."

Nepalese police open fire on lawyers

2006-04-14T12:00:00.000-04:00

This isn't good, and it certainly provides perspective to anyone who takes our own civil liberties for granted.

KATHMANDU: Nepalese police opened fire on protesting lawyers as King Gyanendra called for general elections in a bid to end the ongoing democracy protests. Three lawyers were injured and 70 were arrested when police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to break up the protest outside the Supreme Court.

The courage of Nepal's lawyers under these most trying circumstances is truly inspirational.

Tennessee Bar honors University of Memphis law student

2006-04-14T11:42:00.000-04:00

I think that the Tennessee Bar Association is doing a great thing by honoring this law student.

Betsy Prendergast, a third-year law student at the University of Memphis, recently received the Law Student Volunteer of the Year Award at the Tennessee Bar Association's annual public service luncheon in Nashville. The TBA selected Prendergast as the Tennessee law school student who has provided outstanding volunteer service by working with an organization that's dedicated to representing the indigent - in this case, Memphis' Community Legal Center, a nonprofit organization housed within the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association.

It's a little like teaching your children about family values. They do tend to remember what you teach, and they really like it when they are praised. Here, it looks like the honoree, Ms. Prendergast, also has a lot to teach many of us in the legal profession about values. The rest of the story is here.

A never ending battle for truth and justice

2006-04-14T11:36:00.000-04:00

Here is another interesting story about life on death row.

Anthony "Two Guns" Fletcher's hands tell most of the story. Here at the Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility off I-95 in the Northeast, the once-feared lightweight boxer is leafing through a well-guarded, worn, ribbed folder that's filled with legal papers documenting the 1993 first-degree murder conviction that landed him on death row.

Read on.

Quarles & Brady announces pro bono winner

2006-04-14T11:31:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to associate attorney Katherine Maloney Perhach. Work like this deserves publicity. Nice going, Ms. Maloney.

Angelina Jolie and Fulbright & Jaworski make a dream come true

2006-04-12T10:11:00.000-04:00

This New York Times story out of Houston has a lot of press appeal, but it is just the tip of the iceberg of all the great pro bono asylum and immigration work being done by lawyers across the country.

HOUSTON, April 10 — Young Zheng could not wish for a better 18th birthday present: a green card. A judge ruled Friday that Young Zheng, 17, had been abandoned by his father in China, allowing him to seek residency in the United States. Not the counterfeit kind given to him by Chinese smugglers known as snakeheads before they put him on a plane to the United States. A real one, so he can get out of federal custody, stave off deportation, finish school and chase his dream of becoming a biologist.
It now appears that Young, who once bashed himself against a wall to avoid being sent back to China, has won a three-year legal struggle over his immigration status, putting him on the path to American citizenship — if keeping him in the shadows indefinitely for his own safety. Young foresees a normal life someday, he said in an interview on Sunday under condition that his whereabouts be withheld and that photographs not reveal his features. "I look so different than when I came here," he said, running a hand through his spiky black hair. Anyway, he said, "when I am 40 or 50, the smugglers already pass away." They had already threatened family members, he said.
After a federal judge in Houston forced the government in February to allow the case to be heard in family court, a Texas family court judge ruled Friday that Young had been neglected and abandoned by his father in China.
With that ruling, Young's lawyer, John Sullivan III — a partner at Fulbright & Jaworski who at the urging of the actress Angelina Jolie had mobilized a legal team to work on this and other child refugee cases pro bono — filed immigration papers on Monday to grant Young residency under the federal Special Immigrant Juvenile Status law.

Nice going, Mr. Sullivan and Ms. Jolie.

Party time in Chattanooga

2006-04-07T13:24:00.000-04:00

I love it when this happens.

The Chattanooga Bar Association’s Pro Bono Committee and Young Lawyers Division will present Pro Bono Night 2006 at Bessie Smith Hall on Thursday, May 25. The doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice William “Mickey” Barker and Judge Samuel Payne will honor local attorneys Jay Clements, Buz Dooley, Rob Norred, Jr., and Brian Smith for their pro bono contributions to the citizens of Hamilton Country and the recipient of the annual Pro Bono Firm of the Year Award will be announced. The evening includes live music provided by local attorneys, complimentary food and beverages, and live and silent auctions. Cost is $25 for individual tickets. Proceeds will benefit the Pro Bono Program of Legal Aid of East Tennessee. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 756-4013.

Have a blast, everybody. You deserve it.

Pro bono creativity from Vinson & Elkins

2006-04-05T15:20:00.000-04:00

Here's an innovative way to do law school recruiting:

Last Saturday, about 20 SMU law students joined 12 lawyers from the Vinson and Elkins law firm for a very different type of recruitment event. V&E associates were looking for students to work as summer associates, but the typical dinner and discussion interview was not V&E’s method of choice. Instead, SMU law students spent a few hours at the North Texas Food Bank boxing meals for hungry families in the Dallas area. This “Food Bank Project” was started in 2002 by V&E Partner Kevin Lewis, a 1986 graduate of Harvard Law School. Lewis wanted to do something different with the Harvard students that would not only show them what V&E is about, but also show them how important pro-bono work and community service is at V&E. Since then, the events have expanded to other schools including Duke, Yale, University of Texas, Howard and University of Virginia. In 2005 alone, more than 240 V&E lawyers and law students boxed food for nearly 30,000 meals.

I really like this idea. Nice going, V&E!

Mandatory pro bono in Mississippi!

2006-04-05T15:14:00.000-04:00

It's only 20 hours annually, but what other profession does this?

More bad Darfur news

2006-04-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

Things look like they are worsening, as reported here:

Sudan bars UN envoy from Darfur
The UN's humanitarian affairs chief Jan Egeland says he is being stopped from entering Sudan's western Darfur province. He was to visit the region on Monday, but, although his travel documents were in order, the authorities cancelled his trip at the eleventh hour. The Sudanese government says Mr Egeland's visit was cancelled because of the UN's unpopularity with the local population.

Over the last few weeks, the UN envoy has been critical of Khartoum, saying the government was partly responsible for the worsening situation in Darfur. Mr Egeland thinks this explains his not being allowed into Darfur. The Sudanese government is continuing to resist increasing international pressure to allow a UN peacekeeping force to be deployed in Darfur.

For as long as I have lived, we have been asking ourselves how we can allow things like this to happen. Yet they happen over and over again. Are the good people of the world truly powerless when it comes to evil? Will politics always trump idealism and action? Will Iraq mean an end to intervention against murderous tyranny?

Pro bono does not necessarily mean "for free"

2006-04-03T12:16:00.000-04:00

Here's another example of what I believe is the unfortunate, but growingly conventional, misconstruction of the term "pro bono" to describe legal work.

ASHLAND, Miss. - The Selmer woman accused of shooting to death her minister husband has the best defense money can buy. But so far, Mary Carol Winkler hasn't had to pay for it. Mississippi lawyer Steven Ellis Farese Sr. is heading a dream team of four attorneys in her defense. The others are Steven Farese Jr., Memphis attorney Leslie Ballin and Atlanta attorney Marc N. Garber, a former federal prosecutor. They've been handling the highly publicized case pro bono, or for free. Farese Sr. took on the case March 23 at the request of a long-time friend, Memphis attorney Mike Cook, who is also Winkler's second cousin

"Pro bono" is short for "pro bono publico," which literally translated means "for the public good." It does not mean "for free," although most modern reference sources seem to have adopted this gloss as definitional. As the Winston & Strawn post below demonstrates, "for free" does not necessarily equate with "the public good," at least as far as most people would understand it. Also, there is nothing wrong at all or even mildly inconsistent with "pro bono" lawyers making fee applications in the cases they are handling. I'm not intending to make any comment upon whether the Winkler defense is truly being conducted in the "pro bono publico" spirit. It looks like it may very well be. It's just that it would be great if "high profile" trial lawyers would do the same for the countless indigent defendants who are facing capital murder trials without any real hope of accessing the type of legal services being provided here.

Pro bono record in the making?

2006-03-30T16:09:00.000-05:00

If the defense of former Illinois governor George Ryan counts towards pro bono work, expect to see Winston & Strawn high atop the national pro bono firm ranking charts this year.

The cost of devoting Dan Webb, the firm's top litigator, and a small army of other lawyers to Ryan's criminal defense reportedly has cost Winston & Strawn almost $20 million. The tab stood at $10 million in November, the firm said. Indirect costs, such as a loss of new clients, are impossible to measure.***************************** Winston's pro bono work in the Ryan case is almost unprecedented, said legal experts who struggled to cite similar situations*********************************** One thing the Ryan case has done is broaden the definition of pro bono work, lawyers say. The phrase is short for pro bono publico, which is Latin for "for the public good." Pro bono work is defined differently by different firms and legal organizations, but it traditionally refers to legal work provided at no cost to clients who are too poor to pay for an attorney.

The whole story is here.

Pro bono trial selected as one of 2005's best

2006-03-30T15:53:00.000-05:00

It is gratifying to see a pro bono trial like this getting the attention it deserves. Here it is as reported in The Business Review:

Whiteman Osterman profiling case named to list of top pro-bono cases
A pro-bono case handled by a partner at the Albany, N.Y., law firm of Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP was selected as one of the Top Trials of 2005 by New York Law Journal magazine. The case, handled by partner Scott Fein, has cost $1.5 million in lawyers fees and expenses since it was launched in 1992.
The case, Brown versus State, involved racial profiling in Oneonta in 1992 following the rape of an elderly woman in that college town. The woman identified her assailant as a young black man, and police believed the suspect may have fled towards the SUNY Oneonta campus. The police asked for a list of all black male students at the college and then interviewed all of them. The police also began questioning all nonwhite individuals found in the town. The lawsuit was designed to force the New York state Police to adopt a policy barring racial profiling. When the State Police refused the lawsuit was launched. The 13-year case was finally heard in 2005. On Oct. 28, 2005, following trial in the New York state Court of Claims, Judge Thomas McNamara ruled that the Constitutional rights of one woman in the class action suit were violated by the 1992 street sweep. On Feb. 14,2006 he ruled that the Constitutional rights of one of the men in the suit were also violated. The judge dismissed the claims of the other 58 litigants in the lawsuit. The plaintiffs have filed notice to appeal the decision. The magazine highlighted 15 trials in four categories: civil rights, professional conduct, public policy and corporate crimes. The cases are determined to have major news impact and highlight legal principals. The case, the New York Law Journal reported, received international attention.

At "the pen" with Penn

2006-03-29T09:44:00.000-05:00

This novel approach to pro bono work is really very interesting:

Penn Law students are teaching a 10-week legal studies course at the Graterford State Prison, at no charge to the inmates. And this group is only one of many from the Penn Law school involved in such pro bono work. Penn Law currently requires its students to participate in 70 hours of law-related public service in order to graduate. According to Susan Feathers, the director of Penn Law's Public Service Program, the pro bono projects are "at the core of the Penn Law experience."

I truly believe that access to the rule of law promotes understanding and respect for it. U Penn and its law students are doing a fine job of it. The rest of the story is here. Nice going everybody.

Strange case contest

2006-03-28T18:53:00.000-05:00

I'm giving a prize for the strangest pro bono case anyone can describe to me within the next week. Please send your entries to me at my e-mail address, which you can find in my profile in the bottom left hand corner of this web page.

Death penalty gone wild

2006-03-28T15:22:00.000-05:00

This is self explanatory. Even the most well intentioned legal systems can go haywire. The rule of law is no protection from the arbitrary, heavy hand of a grim reaper supported by the majority of a country's population. Let's not go there.

Biloxi Winter Wonderland

2006-03-28T15:02:00.000-05:00

I am putting this video back up in the hope that I can persuade you to view it! The Gulf Coast remains in desperate need of our help. Ask anyone who has been there. What is wrong with this picture? Why can't we seem to get the job done down there? Are things really as bad as they look? Well, look here and see!!!

Attention all citizens!

2006-03-27T17:33:00.000-05:00

If you do not have access to the benefits of the rule of law, then how can you be expected to have much respect for it? Mass rallies by immigrants these past few days serve as stark examples of the underserved millions of our country's inhabitants (regardless of citizenship status) who will, along with the rest of us, determine the future directions of our collective society. Will they be law abiding? Not if they start off as felons, and not if there are no pro bono lawyers willing to help them. It's as simple as that. I remember thinking many years ago that the newly enacted federal 55 m.p.h. speed limit law would make law breakers for the first time out of a huge number of previously law abiding citizens. This would not be good, I thought then, because respect for the law is essential to our social fabric, and it's awfully hard to respect the law when you break it every day on the way to work. Just as no one should be above the law, no one should be beneath it. These folks need our help, not the back of our hand. Let's give it to them, pro bono publico.

Hunton & Williams shows the way with pro bono fellowship

2006-03-26T15:05:00.000-05:00

I really have to hand it to Hunton & Williams. This is what is known as "walking the pro bono walk."

University [of Virginia] Law student Kate Duvall was recently selected as a Hunton & Williams Pro Bono Fellow, a prestigious position given to one graduating Law student every two years. Duvall said she will begin her job at Hunton & Williams next fall, after she passes the bar exam. She will be working full time at the firm's pro bono office in Richmond. Duvall said she will be helping individuals who cannot afford legal assistance. "Pro bono essentially means your clients can't afford to pay you," Duvall said. The fellowship is two years long, so Duvall will be with the firm until October 2008, said George Hettrick, pro bono partner for Hunton & Williams. ******************************************* The firm will not only give Duvall a salary, but will offer her $10,000 for the two years she will work there in order to help pay back her student loans, Duvall said.

The complete story is here.

Pro bono derivatives for Ethiopian famine relief? See Weil Gotshal & Manges

2006-03-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

Now here's an interesting idea:

Seldom do derivatives attorneys have a crack at big, satisfying pro bono matters that call specifically on their rarified legal expertise. But such was the case with Conrad G. Bahlke, a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges who coordinated a team of lawyers from the firm's Paris, London and New York offices in providing legal counsel to the United Nations World Food Programme and the World Bank for a unique pilot famine relief program in Ethiopia.
According to Mr. Bahlke, a contract with a French reinsurance group provides $7.1 million in contingency funding based on a derivative index of rainfall data gathered from 26 weather stations across Ethiopia. Payout would be triggered if data collected between now and October indicate a rainy season significantly below historic averages, pointing to crop failure affecting as many as 17 million poor farmers.

Read the whole article in New York Lawyer . Nice going, Mr. Bahlke.

Law is cool

2006-03-20T09:34:00.000-05:00

I really like this guy:

David P. Baugh loves the law and loves being a lawyer. He's a Richmond criminal-law attorney who has made a reputation representing the good, the bad and the ugly -- all with vigor because the system promises every accused person a competent defense.
"Every time the government loses a criminal case, the wall that separates the citizens from oppression is shored up just a little bit more," he said.
Baugh, 58, described the kind of lawyer he is by saying he is "a better lawyer than I am a human being. I believe in the canons. I believe in the rules and I try to abide by them." He said he is dedicated to the law and fortunate to be in that profession. "It's lucrative. It's important. And it's sort of cool," he said.
How is it cool? "In the old days when the cattlemen and the sheepherders would get in a war, they'd hire a gunfighter," Baugh said. "Now they hire a lawyer."
One of the canons Baugh tries to abide by calls for lawyers to perform "pro bono" legal work for little or no compensation. The term comes from the Latin phrase "pro bono publico," meaning for the public good.
On April 26, Baugh will be presented the 2006 Lewis F. Powell Jr. Pro Bono Award for his work in pro bono defense of the First Amendment, "his zealous defense of indigent criminal defendants in complex court-appointed cases for nominal compensation" and his dedication to teaching other members of the criminal defense bar.
The Powell Award is named for the late justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from Richmond. It will be presented during the annual Virginia State Bar Pro Bono Conference at the University of Virginia.

You can read the whole story here.

Darfur, Darfur, Darfur!

2006-03-17T17:56:00.000-05:00

I can't say this often enough. Please read this article:

Darfur: the awful silence It's not just the West, the Muslim world isn't interested either.

Tulane: Back to the future

2006-03-17T16:10:00.000-05:00

This is a really nice open letter. If this reflects anywhere near the spirit of today's law students, we are in very good shape for the future.

A Letter to the U.Va. Law Community By Visiting Tulane Students Dear Virginia Law community, Thank you. We, the students from Tulane and Loyola law schools who joined your school last fall, were lucky. Driven out of New Orleans by a storm, we were the lucky group who found ourselves taken in by the students, faculty and staff of the University of Virginia School of Law. While some of us lost our clothes, our computers, our music, and our homes, we all gained something by being in Charlottesville. For four months you became our teachers, our advisors and our peers. You gave us books and beds. You gave us support, and you gave us your friendship. In return, we offer you the thanks of students who are forever grateful. As the Dean of Tulane Law School said recently, we offer you a promise that we stand ready to return your kindness, at any time, should something like this ever happen to you, a promise which we hope never to have to fulfill. Now, two months removed from our time in Virginia, we find ourselves back home in a very different New Orleans. It is a city who has lost many of her best sons and daughters not so much to death as to dispersal. But as its citizens return, New Orleans is a city with a new hope that it will not forever be the city that care forgot and the "Big Easy." Rather, we hope that our city, re-energized by a returning diaspora, will live up to its finer history of rich culture and diversity. We hope that our city will move confidently towards being who we as lawyers purport to be: pro bono publico. On behalf of eleven grateful law students, we send this letter to say that we will never forget what you did for us. So for the classes, for your friendship, and for our second home at the University of Virginia. Thank you. Claire Adams Sean Brett Alyssa Carducci Brad Embree

Too much pro bono?

2006-03-07T10:13:00.000-05:00

Boston's lawyers pride themselves on the work they do for free. It's a way for them to give back, and it's a major recruiting tool. But as top firms cast an increasingly critical eye on the line between public service and profit, some fear good will could end up lost in the balance. By Sacha Pfeiffer, Globe Staff March 5, 2006

Here is the rest of the story.

New Hampshire Bar honors pro bono lawyers

2006-02-27T10:14:00.000-05:00

From the New Hampshire Bar Association web site:

ABA President Michael Greco was the featured speaker at the Midyear Meeting luncheon on Thurs., Feb. 16, and presented the L. Jonathan Ross Award for Outstanding Pro Bono service to Patrick T. Hayes of Lebanon, and to the Pro Bono Attorneys of the year for the counties and superior court districts: Belknap County - Elaine L. Baillargeon, Gilford; Carroll County - Charles L. Greenhalgh, North Conway; Cheshire County - Stephen B. Bragdon, Keene; Coos County - Wendy Roberts, Lancaster; Grafton County - Mary L. Wade, Lebanon; Hillsborough (North) County - Jennifer Rood, Manchester; Hillsborough (South) County - Gawryl & MacAllister, Nashua; Merrimack County - Orr & Reno, Concord; Merrimack County - Katherine Bucklin Stearns, New London; Rockingham County - Mark F. Sullivan, Exeter; Strafford County - Vicki Roundy, Dover; Sullivan County - Buckley & Zopf, Claremont.

John Edwards, the pro bono lawyer?

2006-02-26T15:59:00.000-05:00

Is John Edwards running for President with a pro bono plank in his platform? Look here. Wouldn't that be great?

An army of pro bono supporters

2006-02-22T15:48:00.000-05:00

Please send me any information you think is worthy of publication concerning pro bono lawyers, cases, causes, or clients you may know about. We need to help each other to draw attention to them. I'm thinking big here, and my hope is that we can form an army of similarly motivated persons committed to supporting those who serve the public good.

Biloxi video tells it all

2006-02-18T15:28:00.000-05:00

Please watch this video, and I guarantee you will have a much better understanding of what happened and what is still going on in the Gulf Coast region following the devastation of Katrina.

Florida child advocate honored

2006-02-17T12:34:00.000-05:00

Howard Talenfeld is the kind of lawyer I wish everyone knew about. He makes us all look good. Congratulations, Howard, on receiving this award for your tirelessly selfless work advocating for children:

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Feb. 16 /PRNewswire/ -- Long-time child advocate and trial lawyer Howard Talenfeld has been selected to receive The Florida Bar President's Pro Bono Service Award for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County. The award acknowledges the years Talenfeld, 52, has spent helping -- and convincing others to help Florida's most vulnerable citizens -- its abused, foster, mentally ill and developmentally disabled children. "We selected Howard Talenfeld based on his outstanding pro bono work for Florida's Children First, the non-profit he helped found to provide Florida's foster children with a voice," says Frank Walker, Chair of the 17th Judicial Circuit Committee that selected the Broward recipient of the Florida Bar President's 2006 Pro Bono Service Award. "He continues to devote not only his time, but his incredible talent as a child advocate. We are proud to honor him and put forth his name to the Florida Supreme Court."

You can read the rest of the story here.

Hats off to Harvard

2006-02-17T10:17:00.000-05:00

This is very cool. Harvard Law School under Dean Elena Kagan continues to impress me.

Fulbright pro bono switch up?

2006-02-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

Here's another example of how pro bono service can be a win-win for big law firms and the communities they serve. This one, however, looks to me like pro bono assistance to the prosecutor's office. That's a good thing, mind you, but it does seem like overkill. If the County Attorney's office is understaffed, I can only imagine what the public defender's office must be like. Maybe I'm misreading this press release, which can be seen in full here. If so, I'd appreciate it if someone could straighten me out.

Fulbright's Minnesota Office Announces Attorney Loan Program with Ramsey County Attorney's Office MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 16, 2006--Fulbright & Jaworski's Minnesota office has launched an Attorney Loan Program between the law firm and Minnesota's Ramsey County Attorney's Office. The program involves Fulbright associates being loaned full-time on a pro bono basis to the Ramsey County Attorney's Office, which serves St. Paul and surrounding communities. In a program designed to give the next generation of trial lawyers intensive experience in trying cases, Fulbright & Jaworski's Attorney Loan Program loans associates to public law offices across the nation. The program with the Ramsey County Attorney's Office will give Fulbright's Minnesota attorneys the opportunity to try felony cases. It is the only known program of its type in Minnesota that allows loaned attorneys felony jury trial experience. Ramsey County is the second-most populous in Minnesota and has on average 3,200 adult felonies and over 4,000 juvenile cases per year.

Md. Attorneys Donate Time and Over $2.8 Million To Help State's Poor

2006-02-08T10:09:00.000-05:00

The Maryland bar can be quite proud of its pro bono service record. Although the statistics in this article are from 2004, they evidence the kind of generosity and commitment that make lawyers everywhere look good.

In 2004, Maryland attorneys gave over 1.5 million hours in volunteer pro bono publico ("for the good of the public") legal services to help the state’s indigent population with its legal needs. In addition, attorneys in Maryland personally donated over $2.8 million in cash contributions to support legal services. Overall, 63.2 percent of Maryland’s in-state, full-time lawyers donated time to help those in need by volunteering for pro bono service.
The 2004 Current Status of Pro Bono Service Among Maryland Lawyers report, submitted by the Maryland Court of Appeals by the Administrative Office of the Courts reflects a comprehensive poll of Maryland’s 31,226 lawyers to determine the extent of indigents' need for legal services. In 2002, the Court began requiring Maryland attorneys to report their pro bono hours so it could assess volunteer legal services for the poor and direct resources to areas with the greatest need.
The 2004 report, the third in a series, indicates the number of attorneys donating their time to help the indigent through pro bono service continues to rise. The greatest need for civil legal services for Maryland’s poor continues to be in the area of family law, a law practice area lacking a sufficient number of attorneys to handle the need.

Innocence and the death penalty

2006-02-04T12:47:00.000-05:00

The Death Penalty Information Center has a very informative website well worth the visit for anyone curious about the exactitude with which death sentences are meted out. By their count, since 1973 there have been 122 people in 25 states released from death row with evidence of their innocence. Florida leads the way with 21. Illinois is not far behind with 18. With statistics like these, can it be seriously argued that no innocent person has ever been executed? (See Power Line suggestion to this effect.) Again I ask, what is an acceptable rate of error in death penalty cases?

Charity Bank? Linklaters leads the way.

2006-02-04T11:18:00.000-05:00

Global law firm Linklaters has provided pro bono assistance to Charity Bank, the world's first registered general charity and authorized bank, to create a new tier of capital to underpin its growth with the support of two of the UK's leading foundations. This is a great example of lawyers making a real difference in a deal structured for the common good. Lawfuel reports:

Esmee Fairbairn Foundation and Northern Rock Foundation have each subscribed £500,000 of 10 year subordinated convertible loan stock. The bank is paying 4% per annum for the funds. For the next five years this will count towards the capital Charity Bank needs to support its growing lending business. Documentation for this unique transaction was prepared on a pro bono basis by leading global law firm, Linklaters.
Chief Executive of Charity Bank, Malcolm Hayday, acknowledges that if community development finance is to move from the margin to the mainstream in the UK, it has to be adequately capitalised. "The ability to attract capital from socially motivated individuals, trusts and institutional investors is a major challenge for all of us," he added.
Ron Clarke, Finance Director of Esmee Fairbairn said that "the Foundation has been a long term supporter of Charity Bank and we are pleased to be able to extend our support." Fiona Ellis, Director of Northern Rock Foundation added "Charity Bank has offered the Foundation a welcome opportunity to invest some of our reserve in direct pursuit of our mission. We are delighted to be able to use our resources in as many ways as possible to help charitable organisations."
While such transactions are common place in the public and private financial markets, this is believed to be the first for a UK CDFI. There was no template documentation to show prospective investors but leading global law firm, Linklaters rose to the challenge. Linklaters capital markets partner, Jim Rice, was delighted to be able to bring his firm's knowledge of the markets and the regulatory environment to structure a deal for the common good. "We are very pleased to have been able to support this highly innovative capital transaction which will enable Charity Bank to extend finance to more social enterprises."
To find out more about Charity Bank visit www.charitybank.org or telephone 01732 774040.

Katrina again, lest we forget

2006-01-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

Lawyers from around the country have responded with their time and money to help victims of the disastrous Hurricane Katrina. There are thousands of horror stories from survivors,and there is an endless supply of hardship in need of relief. I call your attention to this recent story from The American Lawyer in the hope that we can all keep our eyes on this ball until the game is over, which by all accounts will be no time soon. Please read the entire story to get a much more complete picture of the range of pro bono services being offered by law firms far and wide.

On a sunny day in late November, Marisa Katz drives east from downtown New Orleans to Chalmatte, one of the areas most ravaged by Hurricane Katrina. Houses stand forlornly along the road, their windows broken and insides gutted. Gas stations and stores are boarded up. There are no pedestrians in sight.

Katz, a 28-year-old attorney with New Orleans Legal Assistance (NOLAC), pulls into the edge of a shopping center next to a large white tent, one of the disaster relief centers set up by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She walks through the tent door past a pair of swaggering men in military fatigues. They are members of Blackwater USA, a private security contractor known for its work in Iraq, who have been hired to guard FEMA staff. Yet the people who trudge into the center are hardly threatening as they wait for hours to fill out applications for trailers and financial aid.
Wedged between groups offering Medicaid and insurance information, Katz and her NOLAC colleagues take four-hour shifts, answering questions and signing up clients who can't afford a lawyer. A woman stops by whose mortgage company had dropped her flood insurance coverage. An elderly couple asks if they should continue paying their mortgage since they won't be rebuilding their house.

"Being part of Legal Assistance has been psychologically helpful," Katz tells the reporter accompanying her. She recalls talking to a young man who found his parents drowned in their attic. "There are a million stories like that," she says.

The primary legal aid group in New Orleans, NOLAC provides a lifeline for the legions of hurricane victims now being cut a raw deal by landlords and insurance companies. NOLAC lawyers are especially sensitive because they, too, have been devastated by the storm. Seventy-five percent of the group's employees lost their houses, and many had to leave the city, reducing the number of staff attorneys from 30 to 23.
"When you've lost your own home, it's hard to think straight," says Mark Moreau, a 28-year veteran-and co-executive director-of NOLAC. Moreau, whose house was engulfed in a seven-foot wall of water, is living with relatives. "It's so hard to get things done without computers and e-mail and support staff and with the courts being closed," he says.

The group also lost its Chalmatte outpost in the storm, and did not return to the site of the wreckage until early December. Wearing masks, Katz, Moreau, and two other staffers slogged through thick mud up to their second-floor office to find the ceilings and one wall caved in. They were able to salvage a few papers among the moldy files.
Founded in 1967, NOLAC receives most of its $3.3 million annual funding from Legal Services Corp., a nonprofit established by Congress to give poor people access to lawyers. Before Katrina hit, NOLAC had 3,000 cases, ranging from housing and workplace disputes to domestic violence cases and child custody battles. Their clients have now scattered around the country, along with witnesses and opposing attorneys, so most of these matters are on hold indefinitely.

Anthony Porter was the wrong man

2006-01-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

I ask again, what is an acceptable level of law enforcement error in death penalty cases? To contend that death penalty opponents have never in history demonstrated that errors have been made leading to the execution of "the wrong man" seems to me like the weakest possible argument in support of the death penalty. To be sure, there are plenty of good arguments in support of the death penalty, but this one is really, really lame. Does anyone seriously think that the wrong man has never been executed? Given another 50 hours, Anthony Porter would have been executed in Illinois, and he was the wrong man. Pro bono lawyers helped him gain a reprieve, and a Northwestern University professor, journalism students, and investigators saved him . Remember his story?

Anthony Porter had exhausted his appeals, his family had made his funeral arrangements, and he was just 50 hours away from execution when he won a reprieve from the Illinois Supreme Court in late 1998. The reprieve was granted not out of concern that Porter might be innocent but solely because he had tested so low on an IQ test that the court was not sure he could comprehend what was about to happen to him, or why. The court's intent was merely to provide time to explore the question of the condemned man's intelligence, but it had an unanticipated consequence: It gave a Northwestern University Professor David Protess, private investigator Paul Ciolino, and a team of journalism students time to investigate the case and establish Porter's complete innocence. Porter had been convicted of two murders. The victims, Marilyn Green, 19, and Jerry Hillard, 18, were shot to death in the bleachers overlooking a swimming pool in Washington Park on the South Side of Chicago shortly after 1 a.m. on August 15, 1982. Police originally surmised that the crime had been an armed robbery, but it is now known to have resulted from a dispute over drug money. ******************************************************** Fifty hours before Porter was scheduled to die, the court granted a stay of execution, ordering the Cook County Circuit Court to hold a competency hearing to determine whether Porter was fit to be executed. Soon after the stay was granted, Protess, Ciolino, and the students started investigating the case. In December of 1998, William Taylor recanted his testimony to Ciolino and one of the students. He said in an affidavit that police had pressured him to name Porter as the shooter. On January 29, 1999, Alstory Simon's now-estranged wife, Inez Jackson, told Protess, Ciolino, and two of the students that she had been present when Simon shot Green and Hillard. She said she did not know Anthony Porter, but that he most certainly had nothing to do with the crime. Four days later, on February 3, Alstory Simon confessed on videotape to Ciolino, asserting that he had killed Hillard in self-defense after the two argued over drug money. Simon claimed the shooting of Marilyn Green had been accidental. Two days later, Porter was released from prison on a recognizance bond and the murder charges against him were officially dropped the next month. Porter thus became the tenth person sentenced to death in Illinois under the present capital punishment law to be released based on innocence. In September of 1999, Alstory Simon pleaded guilty to two counts of second degree murder and was sentenced to 37.5 years in prison.

Remember the action taken by then Illinois Governor George Ryan in January of 2000 and the reasons he gave in support of his decision to impose a moratorium on executions in Illinois? Does anyone seriously think that Governor Ryan's actions were taken in the nick of time to preserve a 100% track record of success in Illinois executions of "the right man?" Here's an excerpt from the whole article:

January 31, 2000
CHICAGO (CNN) -- Illinois Gov. George Ryan on Monday imposed a moratorium on the state's death penalty. All lethal injections will be postponed indefinitely pending an investigation into why more executions have been overturned than carried out since 1977, when Illinois reinstated capital punishment. "We have now freed more people than we have put to death under our system -- 13 people have been exonerated and 12 have been put to death," Ryan told CNN. "There is a flaw in the system, without question, and it needs to be studied."

100% bureaucratic accuracy in death cases?

2006-01-12T19:16:00.000-05:00

I don't think so. But that's what the highly respected conservative bloggers at Power Line seem to be contending, at least for rhetorical purposes:

The right man

Recently, to considerable fanfare, Virginia Governor (until this weekend) Mark Warner ordered genetic analysis to determine whether a man executed in 1992 may have been innocent. The results are in. They show that the man was present at the crime scene which, in Warner's words, "reaffirms the verdict and the sanction." My understanding is that death penalty opponents have never been able to establish a case in which "the wrong man" was executed. They will undoubtedly continue their quest. But with genetic analysis now possible before the fact of execution, even finding an old case of wrongful execution would not lend much support to the case for abolishing the sanction.

What's with the "they will undoubtedly continue their quest" slam? It's quite ironic that government bureaucracy is so highly defended by conservatives when it comes to the death penalty. It's comforting to know that the wrong man has never been executed in the U.S. Yep, this does get under my skin a bit.

Death penalty introspective

2006-01-11T16:33:00.000-05:00

The whole idea of a death penalty makes me uneasy. Sure, I know about retribution and all that. I know about deterrence too. Victims' rights make a lot of sense under almost all circumstances as well. It's not so much the fact that death is involved either. Death is inevitable, and death is everywhere. Hey, every last person on this planet today will be dead within 110 years, so I can easily get over the death part of the penalty. It's the calculated, step by step precision with which executions are first authorized and then take place that stops me cold. Executions to me are nothing at all like war or self defense. There's so much collective premeditation involved in executions that there's nothing else comparable in my book. I'm not sure how to describe the animus or spirit behind executions. Righteousness comes to mind, and righteousness is a good thing. It's just not for me, not now, and maybe not ever. If you think like me, then pro bono defense service in capital cases may well be for you. Check out this link to the ABA Death Penalty Representation Project.

Taproot honors business professionals for pro bono services

2006-01-11T11:20:00.000-05:00

The more nominations made for these prestigious awards, the better off the entire pro bono community will be. Surely there are many, many under-recognized and appreciated business professionals out there who are deserving of nomination and serious consideration for these honors. It would be great if Taproot were flooded with information identifying and praising these servants of the public good. Pro bono lawyers everywhere applaud the business community and Taproot for what they are doing here.

Taproot Foundation Seeks Nominations For The 2006 Pro Bono Awards Ann Moore, Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., to Keynote Awards Ceremony on April 28th (CSRwire) NEW YORK, NY Â The Taproot Foundation, a national nonprofit organization that works to engage the country's millions of business professionals in pro bono service to strengthen the nonprofit sector, today announced that it is accepting nominations for the 2006 Pro Bono Awards. The first annual event will recognize companies across the country who are making an impact in their community by leveraging the skills of their employees.
"The Pro Bono Awards seeks to foster and inspire the expansion of the pro bono ethic far beyond its historic foundation in the legal profession," said Aaron Hurst, president and founder of the Taproot Foundation. "Companies are discovering what law firms and advertising agencies have known for years. At a low cost, pro bono work strategically aligns employee recruitment, retention and professional development with community engagement and corporate philanthropy efforts."
Ann Moore, Chairman and CEO of Time Inc., will keynote the awards ceremony on April 28th at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City. Moore runs the worldÂs leading magazine company, which publishes 154 titles worldwide including such power brands as Time, People, Sports Illustrated, In Style and Real Simple. She has appeared on Fortune magazineÂs list of "The 50 Most Powerful Women in Business" for all seven years of its existence and is a recognized leader in corporate responsibility.
The recipients of the 2006 Pro Bono Awards will be selected by a panel of national leaders in pro bono service and philanthropy. The panel includes Kristin Anderson, senior vice president & director of Community Affairs at Leo Burnett USA, Inc., Kathleen Enright, executive director of Grant Makers for Effective Organizations, Michael Seltzer, executive director of the New York Regional Association of Grantmakers, Miriam Buhl, pro bono counsel for Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP and Jenny Shilling Stein, executive director of the Draper Richards Foundation.
Nomination Process The 2006 Pro Bono Awards is open to all companies with the exception of professional services companies (e.g. law firms, ad agencies, consulting firms, etc.) and companies with fewer than 500 employees. Nomination for the 2006 Pro Bono Awards can be submitted online before February 1st at: http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?p=WEB224VHJZLB3A About the Taproot Foundation
The Taproot Foundation is the provider of pro bono services to the nonprofit sector. It works to engage the countryÂs millions of business professionals in pro bono service, building the infrastructure of organizations we rely on to strengthen and support our communities. Their pro bono model leverages the best practices of leading professional services companies to deliver reliable and quality marketing, human resources and technology services using corporate employees. Since 2002, the Taproot Foundation has recruited over 3,500 business professionals to awarded over $12 million in pro bono services to nonprofits in New York, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. For more information, please visit http://www.taprootfoundation.org/.

Pro bono "dream team" scores big win for lawful permanent residents

2006-01-03T11:55:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when some of the best pro bono lawyers in the country team up to represent a worthy cause affecting the lives of thousands who would not otherwise have any clue as to what the "rule of law" means for them. Access to the rule of law is the key to promoting respect for the rule of law. Congratulations to the fine lawyers at Cooley Godward, the Texas Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), and the ABA's Legal Assistance Partnership Project (LAPP).

Unfounded Security Concerns Do Not Justify Withholding Documentation Beyond a Reasonable Time
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 28 /PRNewswire/ --
A federal court issued a permanent injunction against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ordering the agency to provide documentation of lawful status ("green cards") to a nationwide class of lawful permanent residents (LPRs) who have been denied such proof for months and, in many cases, years. The December 22, 2005 order by U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the Northern District of California added teeth to her August 2005 summary judgment ruling, in which she held that the DHS's policy of withholding documentation from persons already determined to be LPRs by Immigration Courts was arbitrary and capricious, and violated the DHS's nondiscretionary duty to issue documentation in a timely manner. In issuing a permanent injunction, the court rejected the DHS's national security contentions, concluding that such arguments were "illogical and unacceptably vague as a legal justification for withholding documentation." The plaintiff class is represented by Cooley Godward LLP, the Texas Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights, and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). The DHS had acknowledged that the class, originally estimated to exceed 12,000, numbered in excess of 6,000 persons as of October 2005. ********************************************* The lawsuit, Santillan, et al. v. Gonzales, et al., was filed in federal district court in San Francisco in July 2004. The class action suit charged that DHS offices nationwide are consistently rejecting and delaying lawful permanent residents' requests for documentation of their LPR status. Greencard delays, which have lasted from months to years, have created serious hardships for immigrants and their families. The Department of Homeland Security has 60 days from the entry of the injunction to file an appeal. The public interest litigation partnership of Cooley Godward's Pro Bono practice and the non-profit Texas Lawyers' Committee was facilitated by the Litigation Assistance Partnership Project (LAPP) of the American Bar Association (ABA). You can receive a full copy of the summary judgment order by going to http://www.cooley.com/LPR or http://www.txlawyerscommittee.org/.

You can read the whole story here.

Why serve pro bono in death penalty cases?

2005-12-22T10:55:00.000-05:00

Why are so many lawyers willing to provide pro bono legal representation to death row inmates and defendants charged with capital crimes? Don't some people deserve to die? Deserve it or not, we're all gonna die. It's just a question of how and when. For most people, the inevitability of death is psychologically acceptable due to the fortuity of the "how and when." Executions provide the antithesis of this psychologically appeasing fortuity. For many pro bono lawyers, there is a palpable irony to the death eligibility of a crime being based upon the level of premeditation involved. Indeed, our own legal process in death penalty cases rightly embodies a systematic, methodical premeditation in its phases and stages that far exceeds any possible level of premeditation involved in the underlying crime. Premeditated killing gives many good people "the willies," no matter what the justification. This is particularly true when the level of premeditation bursts through the top of the thermometer. Yes, there is also a great concern among pro bono death penalty lawyers about executing either innocent or, even if not innocent, "less than deserving" defendants. No bureaucracy gets it right every time, especially not ours when it comes to law enforcement and prosecution. We know this with virtual certainty, don't we? So, what percentage of the time does our law enforcement bureaucracy, well intentioned as it is, make a mistake? Less than 1%? More? What is an acceptable percentage level of mistakes in the death penalty area of law enforcement? These are some of the reasons why so many lawyers serve pro bono on death penalty cases. There are others, but I find these compelling enough.

Darfur: Vox clamantis in deserto?

2005-12-21T13:42:00.000-05:00

I find the level of public awareness and concern about the genocide in Darfur shockingly low. Please take the time to familiarize yourself with the history and the present circumstances of this horrific situation. The blog of Prof. Eric Reeves www.sudanreeves.org is a great place to start:

The international community has failed to prevent, and gives no promise of punishing, the ultimate crime. Eric ReevesDecember 17, 2005
The National Islamic Front is poised to renew its special place in history as a regime that has successfully deployed genocide as a tool of domestic political and security policy. It joins the Turkish government, which was responsible for the genocidal destruction of perhaps a million Armenians during World War I, and the Nigerian government, which during the late 1960s was responsible for the genocidal destruction of more than a million Ibo people in the Biafra region of southern Nigeria. But unlike the earlier Turkish and Nigerian regimes, the National Islamic Front has been successful in its genocidal efforts on multiple occasions, including its previous genocides in the Nuba Mountains (beginning in 1992) and in the southern oil regions (beginning in 1997). These are the ghastly precedents for current genocide in Darfur.

Read the whole thing. Is Prof. Reeves a voice crying out in the wilderness? If so, we have no one to blame but ourselves.