Chicago after dark

From timesonline.co.uk:

Bob Dylan on Barack Obama, Ulysses Grant and American Civil War ghosts - Listen to an exclusive track from Bob Dylan's new album, and read his views on US politics and history, exclusively on Times Online

Bill Flanagan: In that song Chicago After Dark were you thinking about the new President?

Bob Dylan: Not really. It’s more about State Street and the wind off Lake Michigan and how sometimes we know people and we are no longer what we used to be to them. I was trying to go with some old time feeling that I had...

Greetings from Chicago

Law butcher for the world, city of Andrea Lyon's shoulders, my family and I are enjoying your company.

IL: Ed Burnette's swan song

From Chicago Breaking News Center:

Public defender wins last case over Stroger

During his last day in office today, Cook County Public Defender Edwin Burnette was savoring a legal victory over County Board President Todd Stroger. The victory came in the form of a unanimous ruling from the First District Illinois Appellate Court. It made clear the public defender - and not the board president - has control over hiring, firing and discipline in the public defender's office...

See also Cook County Public Defenders Blog, Burnette Victorious in Suit Against Stroger

(My kind of town. My vacation there starts this Saturday.)

IL: "they reconciled their differences"

The p.d. news today concerns Cook County chief public defender Edwin Burnette. From the Cook County Public Defender Blog:

Rumors of his Demise Greatly Exaggerated

The hearing on the proposed resolution to remove Ed Burnette has been cancelled...

From the Chicago Tribune's Clout Street:

Stroger drops effort to fire public defender

Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is dropping his effort to fire Public Defender Edwin Burnette, the public defender and a spokesman for Stroger confirmed Monday...

More news and links from Division Street.

Lord, the sea is so big and my boat is so small

I got a bit of a frisson from this ABA Journal article about a former public defender striking out on his own:

A Conspiracy of One - After months of planning, hoping and hand-wringing, Michael Grossman is ready to start his new life as a solo practitioner

(T)oday... is Grossman’s first day at a new firm. His firm.

(H)e’s ready to tackle the day. Which for now means stuffing hundreds of envelopes with announcements that he’s opened a solo practice. Grossman is sending the cards to pretty much everyone he knows: friends, associates and lawyers he’s crossed paths with during his nine years in the Cook County Public Defender’s Office...

I completely understand this reason for the move:

He began to notice the violence was getting under his skin in ways it never had before. Before he became a parent, that is...

One murder case proved particularly troubling. “There were four dead bodies, and one was a 2-year-old,” he recalls. “I had medical examiner photos in my file that I didn’t want to look at. I didn’t want to take that home with me at the end of the day.” While the case alone wasn’t enough to make him quit, it contrib­uted to his growing malaise. “I believed in what I was doing,” he says. “I just wanted to do something different...”

But I suspect that this only leads to trouble:

Meanwhile, Grossman had become an avid blog reader...

Experts decry what we juvy p.d.'s do with the hand we're dealt

E-mailed from the blogkeeper of I Speak of Dreams:

Study cites troubles with juvenile courts

Children accused of crimes in the U.S. juvenile court system often find themselves represented by lawyers who know nothing about their cases and under pressure to plead guilty, experts said on Wednesday.

"People would be outraged by many of these practices if they occurred in an adult system," said Cathryn Crawford of the Children and Family Justice Center at Northwestern University Law School.

She was one of the authors of a report that looked at the juvenile court system in Illinois timed to mark the 40th anniversary of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that held that children accused of delinquency are entitled to a lawyer and due process in the courts...

Reaction from one Illinois juvenile public defender:

After reviewing the study, Brian Dees, an assistant public defender assigned to Sangamon County juvenile courts, said, “I don’t think it’s indicative of what we do here.”

Dees said defense attorneys normally meet with juveniles and parents before the first court hearing. Plea bargains are not forced on anyone, he said, and juvenile defendants don’t plead guilty on their first appearance. “We like to win trials,” said Dees, who has represented juveniles for eight years in Sangamon County. “We do everything we can. I’m not sure what they’re talking about...”

IL: the world turned upside down

From the Chicago Reader blogs:

Rule of Law

I hope I wasn't the only one who was floored to read the following quote in this morning's Sun-Times: "This world is upside down when public defenders who represent criminals make more than the men and women in this office."

It's attributed to first assistant state's attorney Robert Milan, Cook County's second-ranking prosecutor. I assume this is just careless venting... (I)t's not like the public defender's office is some feel-good charity set up to soothe the consciences of champagne liberals...

"My clients have been very happy"

From the Journal Gazette and Times-Courier:Dunst encounters smooth transition as new Cumberland public defender

NPR: "new book profiles public defender 'elite'"

At NPR (motto: "we here at public radio couldn't be more pleased with ourselves"), Talk of the Nation's website has streaming audio and a nice long excerpt from "Defending the Damned":

Author Kevin Davis discusses his book, Defending the Damned: Inside Chicago's Cook County Public Defender's Office. Davis shadowed Chicago's elite murder task force, the public defenders who represent accused rapists and serial killers who have the deck — and often the evidence — stacked against them...

Assistant producer Sarah Handel at Blog of the Nation is soliciting your comments:

If you're a public defender, what's the best part of the job? What was your wildest case (that you can share, of course!)?

IL: when a p.d.'s contorted with hate

Interesting stuff from Eric Zorn's Chicago Tribune blog, Change of Subject:

Standing up for rights isn't always pretty

Here’s a startling passage from author Kevin Davis’ new book “Defending the Damned ---- Inside Chicago’s Cook County Public Defender’s Office.”

“When I’m on trial and we’re in a truly adversarial proceeding, I hate the mother of the victim. I hate the father of the victim, I hate the children of the victim. I hate every part of it. It’s actually a terrible thing, but I can literally hate them when I’m fighting. I have to.”

The speaker is Assistant Public Defender Marijane Placek...

Uh, about that self-justifying "you have to" ...

I have known literally dozens of defense attorneys and have never met one who felt this way. Hate the lawyers on the other side of the aisle? Occasionally. But hate the victim? Never.

And more from the comments:

* Ms. Placek's "hate the victim" view is not the standard attitude for members of the defense bar...

* (G)ive Placek credit for, at the very least, being honest about how she does her job. We need hardworking public defenders, but I don't believe we need them "hating" the children and wives of murdered police (or murdered anyone). I wonder if she reflects on the damage her words cause to a family that's already suffered a loss that no one should experience, or if that's just part of the game she enjoys so much...

* Yes, EVERY litigant--even a guilty defendant--deserves vigorous representation. But they are not entitled to my soul, my conscience, my values. By "hating" the victim's family, the system is compromised. It does not improve representation, it diminishes the attorney, the system and society. All of us are a little bit less when winning becomes so important that one person, one attorney, is willing to hate and revictimize innocent victims...

I'm starting a manslaughter trial on Monday, and somehow I don't feel any hate toward the victim's family at all. I hope you all can still respect me as a p.d.

IL: pink slip

From Second Guessing in the Second City:

Today is day 4 of being unemployed. Thanks to the Cook County Budget cuts, I am no longer a public defender...

IL: fire 50 public defenders, save Todd Stroger's private elevator

Law student Grace at Law with Grace is not impressed with the thinking behind the budget cutting in Cook County:

At first it seemed like the PD's office would refuse to comply. But they've had a change of ummm.... uhhhh...heart? Like, overnight. I'd LOVE to know how that happened. Suffice it to say that politics in Chicago are rarely as they seem...

Todd Stroger calls for a 17% budget cut of the PD's office. The PD's office complies, resulting in about 50 assistant public defenders being laid off.

A little something called Gideon v. Wainwright means that a defendant has a right to counsel. Currently, this is not something Cook County is exempt from providing its defendants...

More from Soapblox Chicago (nice Haymarket graphic by the way):

Cook County to Cut "Fat" From Public Defenders' Office By Possibly Spending More Money:

Federal law mandates that legal representation be provided at the county's expense for indigent defendants, but private attorneys start twice as high as the measly wages the public defender's union has been able to negotiate. The only rationale for cuts in the public defender's office is to give the appearance of cutting spending while deferring the inevitable substantially higher costs into a later timeframe and buying time to lay the blame.

And you can always keep up with the latest on the Cook County Public Defenders Association Blog (AFSCME Local 3315).

Card check

In Cook County, Illinois, the public defender rank and file aren't taking the layoffs of possibly 50 attorneys lying down.

Too bad that their boss is.

Too bad for the clients - remember them?

Finally, from Montana, Rabid Sanity reminds us that not all public defenders are joiners:

I find it ridiculous that lawyers have unions.

Bonus link explains "card check."

IL: solidarity forever

It doesn't sound as though the Cook County public defenders are going to take the threatened budget cuts and lay-offs lying down:

We will fight to protect the public, our client’s rights to quality representation in the criminal justice system, and the jobs of all public defenders. As we who work here know, layoffs of public defenders would cripple an already teetering justice system...

IL: Cook County p.d.s on the chopping block

From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Many lawyers could lose jobs - Prosecutors, public defenders would feel pinch

Tensions are roiling the Cook County public defender's office amid fears the county's budget woes could force deep cuts in legal staff.

The 10 percent budget cut initially requested by county officials would force layoffs of 150 lawyers, Public Defender Ed Burnette said. If County Board President Todd Stroger gets the 17 percent cut he is now asking for, at least 210 assistant public defenders would have to be cut, another source said. "It's going to be devastating," Burnette said...

Send some love to the colleagues in Chicagoland, the poor bastards.

Update: they have a blog.

IL: "I don't believe he is a criminal"

In the wake of the George Ryan trial, here is a profile from the Chicago Sun-Times of one of my instructors at NCDC and the Darrow College, Andrea Lyon:

'I do not believe he is a criminal and conspirator'

Lyon is about the furthest an attorney can be from that silk-stocking, money-making operation.

At 53, her legal career, 14 years of it as a public defender, could best be defined by all the money she never made on behalf of causes she passionately believed in when nobody else did. "She bleeds defense blood," says her friend and DePaul Law School faculty colleague Len Cavise.

I know that to be true...

IL: it was a day like any other

How would you like to be the reporter on this courthouse beat? This article is unusually mundane as far as crime news goes. Nothing gory or exciting happens. Instead, we're plopped down in a routine-sounding arraignment docket:

A talkative defendant required the intervention of Sheriff Tim Crippes during the Dec. 12 criminal and traffic call in Edgar County Circuit Court.

Phillip A. Scott, 60, was in custody and he started talking as soon as his name was called.

“Yes sir,” said Scott, responding to his name from Judge David W. Lewis. “God bless you and this court and the state’s attorneys." Lewis instructed Scott not to speak unless responding to a direct questions...

Colley W. Thomas, 25, was in custody and charged with a Class 3 felony of aggravated battery alleging great bodily harm. According to the charging document, Thomas struck another man in the head with a baseball bat... Asked if he intended to hire counsel, Thomas replied, “Yes, if I can get out.” However, Thomas asked for the appointment of a public defender after the court ordered a $15,000 bond with 10 percent to apply...

Roger Dale Baugh Jr., 22, failed to meet a Dec. 10 deadline for making a $200 payment toward fines and costs. “I didn’t have the money,” said Baugh, intimating that he would still make the payment. “Mr. Baugh, you tell me that you are going to do things and you don’t,” responded Lewis. “I don’t have any reason to believe you. You haven’t made a good faith effort.” Lewis ruled that Baugh was in contempt of court and continued the matter for a sanction hearing...

Adam McCoy, 32, appeared to ask the court to quash a warrant that was issued when he missed a prior court date. McCoy said he had mechanical problems on the way to court and was unsuccessful in attempts to reach both his attorney and the state’s attorney to advise them of the situation. He presented a receipt from a towing service as proof of the break down. Lewis accepted the proof and quashed the warrant.

Arrest warrants for missing court were issued for Joseph L. Budd, 18, and Roy A. Smitley, 34.

The article does give a decent slice-of-life sense of an un-extraordinary day in court. Perhaps it could be instructional for aspiring d.a.'s and p.d.'s. Perhaps one of them could explain why you'd want to cut off a defendant who's saying, "God bless you and this court and the state’s attorneys." That seems extraordinary.

IL: Andrea Lyon and the ex-governor

Andrea Lyon is known for representing clients facing capital punishment. Now she's on the defense team for a former Illinois governor facing federal corruption charges:

If George Ryan hadn't emptied Death Row and pardoned her client, former Death-Row inmate Madison Hobley, would she be volunteering her time today to help the Ryan legal team?

She was candid. "No," she said. But, she went on to explain, she had become friends with Ryan after he left office in the context of his advocacy for abolition of the death penalty. And it was that friendship, along with her belief in his innocence, that inspired her to help him.

Interesting enough. Also worth clicking on for the republished Chicago Tribune story, "Angel of Death Row: For Illinois prisoners facing execution, Andrea Lyon is the last line of defense" (scroll down), and this takeaway quote:

"After you've defended someone's life, one rich man suing another seems so unimportant."

Andrea Lyon, public defender hero

If you're ever on trial for your life, Andrea Lyon is a good name to know. She can say proudly that she has saved the life of an innocent man. As a public defender for over thirteen years, she took some 130 homicide cases to trial, including over 30 potential death penalty cases. Now she directs the Center for Justice in Capital Cases at Depaul University.

I've benefited from Andrea Lyon's example and dedication in person two times. She directs the Clarence Darrow Death Penalty Defense College, one in-depth (and cheap!) week of CLE in Ann Arbor. She was also one of the best instructors at National Criminal Defense College, two intense (and cheap!) weeks of p.d. boot camp in Macon. The finest thing she taught me was by example. I'm a lawyer "of size." She is, too, and a confident and prosecutor-crushing one to boot. For a fat cat like me, it's really invigorating to meet a mentor who's large and in charge! She showed me how to stand tall in the courtroom and throw my whole weight into forming a bulwark between my clients and their accusers. "If you want to get my client, first you're gonna have to come through me" is not a bad motto for an XXXL p.d. Thank you, Andrea.