http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com Fight the man a little more every day! Thu, 06 Mar 2008 22:07:12 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I met one of my first clients, let's call him "Raul," on the first day I was let off the leash in my department, in mid-January. Raul was an in-custody client, accused of negligent discharge of a firearm, carrying a loaded firearm in public, and attempted animal abuse.  The client wasn't ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2008/03/02/the-sad-story-of-my-first-almost-trial/ That new house with the pretty pictures... it's gone. I've moved... passed the bar... and been hired as a deputy public defender!! I'm working in one of the general misdemeanor departments.  Monday through Friday, 8:30 - 5.  No free hours, no office days.  I have about 95 open cases at the moment, ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/brand-new-pd/ As I've said many times before, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad constantly says things that discredit him in the eyes of the Western world.  Today, as I write this, he is speaking at Columbia University in New York City.  In response to a question about the execution of homosexuals, he proclaimed ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/09/24/ahmadinejad-at-columbia-university/ Welcome to our lovely new home! It needs a new coat of paint on the outside there, and our landlord seems willing to foot the bill - please suggest colors! Here are some of the rooms: ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/09/14/the-new-house/ One can't just defend the public all day long!  So, this blog is going to transmute into something more than just a public-defender-related thing... it's now just about me, and that will sometimes, perhaps even often, be about public defense, but no guarantees! I've moved intracity.  Our new home is now ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/09/10/a-new-page/ Sherri Jefferson, the former Georgia public defender who was held in contempt and sentenced for 30 days, has struck back and filed slander actions against both Mike Mears, Director of the Georgia Public Defense Standards Council, and Albert Murray, the Commissioner for the Department of Juvenile Justice. In her Notices of ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/05/17/sherri-jefferson-strikes-back/ Tonight, I subscribed to my first bar exam review program, Adaptibar. It seems pretty cool so far - less expensive than MicroMash (its competitor in the world of computer-based MBE-prep) and more technologically-advanced. Among its many features is a timing analysis system that purportedly determines your temporal "sweet ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/05/01/adaptibar-is-funny/ When I came to law school, I brought some books. I can't say I've finished all of those, but I've bought many more over the past two-and-a-half years. So many, in fact, that when I moved last summer for an internship, I took a big box of books ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/04/29/books/ As if the legal situation at Guantánamo couldn't get any worse, the DOJ is requesting court approval to further castrate detainee access to defense attorneys. Among the DOJ proposals: Defense attorneys would be allowed to meet with their clients only three times; Intelligence officers and military lawyers would be allowed to read ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/04/26/guantanamo/ Sadly, I won't be working as a post-bar at a particular next-county-over Public Defender's office - that office seems to have bigger problems to worry about.  So, let's see - you're the head of a county's indigent defense system that is understaffed, plagued with "unbearable caseloads" (ineffective assistance?) and accusations ... http://defendthepublic.wordpress.com/2007/04/24/sometimes-you-see-it-coming/