March 13, 2005

Fall on your sword 2: the last frontier

Spoken from the heart, a contribution from Alaskablawg to this long-running conversation amongst ourselves about ineffective assistance of counsel and personal character of p.d.'s.

I think that the lawyer who writes Alaskablawg is one of the admirable ones. Read him, and read the comments that follow each of the links.

1 Comment:

moi said...

Having read all the posts and ensuing comments, I feel I have a little to add. Being a public defender myself and working in a specialized habeas corpus unit, I have my own concerns. More often than not, most trial attorneys (when I say trial attorneys, I'm referring to counsel for my client at his/her trial) are absolutely adamant that they were not ineffective. In some cases, they are not! But those are the cases that we are ethically bound to not file. In the habeas petitions that are filed and tried, there is atleast a colorable claim of ineffectiveness of trial counsel.

IAC is not an indictment on the general capability of a given trial attorney. It is an indictment of the performance of a given trial attorney in a particular case.

No one would go as far as to say that every case they have ever tried has been perfect. Everyone (yes, even defense attorneys) are human. I think, and my opinion may be biased in favor of my clients, that attorneys need to realize that the bigger issue here is the constitutionality of a client's incarceration.

If there is an avenue of investigation that the trial attorney neglected, admit it. If there is a witness that was forgotten, admit it. Trial attorneys are only too quick to boast about their "hard work" and the "great odds they faced in securing a deal", so why not be honest on the flip side too and say "yes, I should have done that" or "I should have asked that, but I didn't".

The standard for IAC is well established. Let the court decide whether you were ineffective in this particular case or not. This isn't a game, nor is it a popularity contest.
It is simply about ensuring that every criminal defendant receives Constitutionaly mandated effective representation.