TN: “had you wanted God to send you a boss, He would have sent you Ross”

From Tennessean.com:

Metro's public defender dead after accident

The Davidson County public defender who created a “progressive” legal representation system, mentored scores of attorneys and was a dedicated family man died Saturday. Ross Alderman, 56, was hit by a car in Williamson County while riding a motorcycle, an activity he enjoyed for years...

Described by his colleagues as a hard worker who cared about fairness, truth and ethics, Mr. Alderman was the driving force behind establishing several new services in the public defender’s office, including programs that help clients with mental health and substance abuse problems...

Via Grand Divisions.

Update: Nashville public defender killed in motorcycle crash - Ross Alderman modernized office

Update: Nashville Public Defender dies in crash - Remembering Ross Alderman: Nashville's public defender was a champion for those in need of one

TN: "what if he actually pulls the trigger?"

At PrawfsBlawg, ethics professor Alex Long is watching the Knoxville chief public defender's threat to pull all p.d.'s off of all misdemeanors:

If these weren't public defenders... there wouldn't be any issue here: a lawyer can't ethically represent a client if the lawyer can't do so competently. But these obviously aren't just regular old private lawyers and we aren't just talking about one client. While I think I'm o.k. with Stephens threatening not to take any more misdemeanor cases... I'm not sure what I'll think if he actually pulls the trigger if and when his bluff(?) is called...

Court? I thought this was Bonnaroo

It's not too often that you get to read a blog by a disbarred p.d.:

Preparing for Battle

This morning I have to go to a local circuit court house to testify in a post-conviction matter involving a former client I represented in 2000/2001 back when I was a public defender. There are a couple of things that make this difficult. One, I used to be a pretty successful criminal defense attorney in our area, but, a little over a year and a half ago, I got federally indicted, after which I got convicted and disbarred. You can read about that in my very first post...

Interesting person, OceanShaman, whose blogroll has something in common with this article from the Tennessean:

Judges lay down law on uncourtly clothes

Fed up with defendants coming to court wearing flip-flops, wife-beater t-shirts, saggy drawers and gangster couture, some Nashville judges are saying, "Enough!..."

Other judges have ordered people to put on smocks or have put them in jail for repeatedly refusing to dress appropriately... The legal question over whether a judge can sanction a person for being dressed improperly is murky. Some judges have argued that inappropriate dress can disrupt a courtroom, just like talking too loud or letting a cell phone ring...

Smocks?! Yes, I have a problem with the urge to humiliate people with some government-issue smock or orange coveralls over the way they dress for court. Me, usually I'm just happy that my clients make it to court at all.

The common thread - Widespread:

A court date is not the same thing as going to watch Widespread Panic...

Remember that (greetings go out to my former co-worker Julia, who introduced me to {southern Georgia accent} Widespread {/southern Georgia accent}).

TN: say amen, somebody

From the Tennessean:

DA's letters to inmate improper, some legal experts say - References to religion in correspondence questioned

Religion has long had its place in the criminal justice system, where witnesses swear on the Bible and some courtrooms convene with prayer, where prisoners undergo jailhouse conversions and victims turn to faith for solace and answers.

But when a Midstate district attorney embarked on a deeply personal, deeply religious two-year correspondence with a murderer he helped prosecute — offering his prayers, quoting Scriptures and telling him that God was speaking to him against a plea bargain in the case — did he cross a line?

Wait, I think I know the answer to this one...

TN: piping hot turnover

Been there. From the Shelbyville Times-Gazette:

Public Defenders office loses two attorneys

Two of the five public defenders here and three adjoining counties will be newly-hired attorneys this spring as an experienced lawyer has retired and the newest at that office got married and is making a new home in Nashville.

Faced with the prospect of losing 40 percent of the lawyers in her office, Public Defender Donna Hargrove suddenly became a one-woman human resources director looking for attorneys to fill open positions at an overworked office.

Such a significant percent change in the number of public defenders is important to the general public because it means fewer lawyers would be available to represent indigents...

The mathematical logic behind that last sentence is unassailable.

TN: in defense of "defending those people"

Karla Gothard: How She Defends "Those People":

Chief Assistant District Public Defender Karla Gothard said people frequently ask her how she is able to defend “those people...”

“(B)ehind each headline or label, there is a human being with a story. When I look across the table at a client, I see a spark of God in them. I want to know who they are...”

“As a defender I tell the jury that it is like they are looking at a window with a shade pulled over it. A hole is poked in the shade and what they see through the whole is all they see of a whole life. My job is to lift the window shade up, so they can better see the client’s story...”

TN: pissing (or something) contest

Please, please, if you are an assistant public defender, please count to ten and inform your supervisor before you send a letter to the county sheriff like this one (pdf file).

Otherwise, not only do you, your clients, and everybody else who need to go to jail visiting get to pay when the retaliation comes down, you get to look like a buffoon on the sheriff's website.

(thanks to KnoxNews Blogs' No Silence Here.)

TN: p.d caseload crisis explained

The Shelbyville Times-Gazette shines some light on the situtation in "Public defenders overloaded, but less so locally":

Public defenders across Tennessee say they're overloaded with criminal cases, but the case load is down slightly in the Bedford County area for at least two reasons. "A lot of that was a result of multiple conflicts of interest," explains Donna Orr Hargrove, the elected public defender...

Another reason for a slightly lower public defender case load locally is the office's newest lawyer, Haley Fults. "We were one of the few districts where the legislature gave us a new defender," Hargrove said, describing Fults as "an excellent attorney."

But case load doesn't tell the whole story. "We're definitely over the number of clients the American Bar Association recommends," Hargrove said.

Another factor is the nature of the public defenders' client. Although some might debate the point, public defenders' clients are generally indigent...

(emphasis added)

Moonlighting

In Nashville, Government lawyers try to make ends meet:

During the week, Rachel Sobrero spends her time in a Nashville courtroom prosecuting... On the weekends, the 29-year-old assistant district attorney general waits tables...

Across the aisle... is Assistant Metro Public Defender Mickie Smith Daugherty. ...the 30-year-old lawyer moonlights as a teacher helping students get into college. Daugherty had a third job, she said, until her doctor told her she was suffering from sleep deprivation.

Today my colleagues at work were comparing monthly student loan payments; the winner was $1500.00/month. I'm so glad I got into a state school.

Bad combo

Way down on the Mojave desert: "Fewer public defenders, more cases"

"It's stressful and hectic," said Jon-Marc Petersen, a public defender in the Victorville office who recently decided to move his family back to Tennessee, where he went to law school. "Personally, it's not how you want to operate as a lawyer — you end up compromising your personal philosophy to operate on a day-to-day basis."

You and me both, compañero, you and me both.

Pusherman, Tennessee

"Father of Meth-Burned Child Sentenced: Judge Sentences Father Whose Child Was Burned in a Home Meth Lab to More Than 10 Years in Prison"

Forgive me, PD brothers and sisters. For reasons that are not mysterious, I can't forgive or defend this conduct. Maybe counsel's plea for sympathy would ring true in a simple possession case, but this guy was a cooker. My heart goes out to their child.