Public Defenders

Meet the California public defender who is ‘shaking the Orange County legal system to its bedrock’

A longtime public defender in California known for his lengthy “eye bleeder” motions relied on his dogged determination to unearth what he says is a secret, orchestrated effort by police to place jailhouse informants near high-value defendants in Orange County. The lawyer, Scott Sanders, “is shaking the Orange County legal…

Sep 30, 2015 12:16 PM CDT

NYC to hire more lawyers, nearly double $34M budget to battle evictions

Faced with a growing population of homeless individuals and families and a lack of good shelter options, the city of New York is planning to hire eviction defense lawyers. The city hopes this will help alleviate the problem by reducing the number of people that are forced from their homes,…

Sep 28, 2015 4:40 PM CDT

Legal Aid threatens suit over interview-room cameras at new $230M courthouse

A new $230 million courthouse in Staten Island, New York, hadn’t been open to the public for a full day before a lawsuit was threatened by the Legal Aid Society on Monday. Despite its gleaming walls, handicapped accessibility, convenient proximity of civil and criminal courtrooms and modern technology, the five-story…

Sep 28, 2015 4:00 PM CDT

New Yorker profiles ‘St. Judy,’ revered defense lawyer who, for first time, had a client get death

Judy Clarke helped keep high-profile murderers including child-killer Susan Smith, Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and Jared Loughner, who killed a federal judge in an Arizona shooting spree, off death row. But despite her best efforts, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose conviction was generally viewed as almost inevitable, was sentenced to…

Sep 18, 2015 2:30 PM CDT

Did robbery defendant forfeit right to an attorney? Top state court to decide

Joshua Nisbet didn’t want to represent himself in a Maine robbery trial. But a state court judge said he had to do so because he couldn’t get along with the five attorneys previously appointed at various times to represent him in the Cumberland County case and he last two said…

Sep 17, 2015 5:50 AM CDT

Public defender sues over alleged law enforcement scrutiny of her driving records

Law enforcement in Broward County, Florida, violated a federal statute by accessing her driving records without good reason, an assistant public defender says in a lawsuit. Caroline McCrae alleges in the federal suit that Fort Lauderdale police and a Broward County sheriff’s deputy violated the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act on…

Sep 16, 2015 5:30 AM CDT

Maryland public defender investigating every juvenile life-without-parole case

Maryland’s Office of the Public Defender’s post-conviction division has launched an effort to investigate all cases of inmates who, as juveniles, were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, following through on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in 2012 that such sentences violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition…

Sep 15, 2015 4:35 PM CDT

ABA brief supports cause of action for constructive denial of counsel due to PD underfunding

Criminal defendants shouldn’t have to wait until after trial to assert claims for ineffective assistance of counsel when underfunding makes public defenders unable to deliver competent and diligent representation, according to an ABA amicus brief. The brief (PDF), filed with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday, supports a cause of…

Sep 11, 2015 10:15 AM CDT

Lawyer arrested while representing client in courthouse hallway sues city and police

Arrested and handcuffed in the hallway of the San Francisco Hall of Justice earlier this year, as she attempted to represent a client during a police interview, an assistant public defender has now filed a federal civil rights suit. Jami Tillotson says she “lives in a state of embarrassment” as…

Sep 4, 2015 10:55 AM CDT

Judge has public defender handcuffed, but gives him a break at contempt hearing

Warned by the Virginia judge hearing a motion in a second-degree murder case to stop arguing after the court had already ruled, an assistant public defender said a few words too many. That prompted Circuit Judge Johnny E. Morrison to hold attorney Dennis McCarthy in contempt and have him taken…

Aug 25, 2015 5:45 AM CDT

Man will be resentenced over trial judge’s comments in unrelated case

A New Jersey man convicted of murdering his girlfriend must be resentenced because of comments the trial court judge made in another case, a state appeals court has held. The appeals court said Thursday that the judge’s comments “deprived” them of confidence that the judge sentenced the man in accordance…

Aug 24, 2015 11:30 AM CDT

Lawyer is charged in federal drug case; judge appoints public defender

A Georgia criminal defense lawyer has been federally indicted in a drug-distribution case after police say she sold drugs to undercover agents. Arraigned Monday in Macon after the unsealing of the Aug. 11 indictment, Holly Hogue Edwards, 35, is accused of distributing oxycodone and methamphetamine, the Telegraph reports. Edwards was…

Aug 17, 2015 5:00 PM CDT

Midnight motion wins almost immediate court order allowing public defender to see client

Denied access Aug. 7 to a jailed woman suspected of killing a state social worker and three relatives after losing a child-custody case, the Vermont defender general’s office swung into action. Staff attorney Kelly Green said she called Barre city police at 9:20 p.m. asking to see Jody Herring. The…

Aug 17, 2015 4:35 PM CDT

Blistered by judge, ‘ineffective’ lawyer gets murder case against client dismissed

Blistered by a controversial Baltimore trial judge for her claimed ineffective representation of a murder defendant, a defense lawyer soon won a stunning victory. Initially held in contempt and threatened with jail by Chief Judge Alfred Nance, assistant public defender Deborah Levi got off the hook when Nance decided to…

Aug 12, 2015 2:55 PM CDT

Man spent 110 days in jail in ‘new’ case for which he’d already served his time

Released from a Georgia jail in March 2014, Eric Wyatt was stunned to be escorted by authorities to a jail in another county instead of being set free. He was being arrested under a warrant that charged him with borrowing a truck and failing to return it several years ago.…

Aug 6, 2015 5:04 PM CDT