Fred Korematsu, 1919-2005

Fred Korematsu, of Korematsu v. United States, has died at 86.

In February 1942, 120,000 U.S. residents of Japanese ancestry ... were ordered out of their homes and into camps following... Pearl Harbor. Korematsu did not turn himself in and was arrested, jailed and convicted of a felony for failing to report for evacuation.

Korematsu was one of several who challenged the constitutionality of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 authorizing internment. His case eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court and, in 1944, the court upheld the order. But, as was discovered many years later, the court — and the nation — had been gravely misled about the potential dangers from Japanese-Americans...

President Reagan in 1988 declared the internment a "grave injustice" and signed legislation authorizing reparations of $20,000 each to thousands of surviving internees, including Korematsu. In 1999, President Clinton awarded Korematsu a presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor.

The full article is here.

(Thank you to Creek Running North for the news.)

The Crawford in Crawford v. Washington changes his plea to guilty

You know Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36 (2004).

But do you know the man in the title? He was back in a South Sound courtroom yesterday:

An Olympia man whose conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court pleaded guilty Wednesday on the eve of a second trial for stabbing a man he thought had tried to rape his wife.

Michael Crawford, 27, ...was sentenced to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in Thurston County Superior Court to one count of first-degree assault. His conviction and 14-year prison term were reversed... by the nation's highest court.

The Supreme Court set aside precedent and sent Crawford's case back for a new trial, and barred prosecutors from using (his) wife's taped statement...

"There were indeed problems that both sides would face," Judge Gary Tabor said Wednesday as he accepted the guilty plea. "There were very valid concerns to both sides as to what might be the risks."

Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Dave Soukup said the prosecution's case would have hinged on testimony from the victim...

But the victim, Kenneth R. Lee, is in the county jail and has a history of crime and drug use. That increased the risk that jurors would acquit a second time around, Soukup said...

Update: Meanwhile in Grant County, Washington, here is what happened to Mr. Blakely after he "won" in the U.S. Supreme Court... 35 years to serve.

A lawless pre-lapsarian Shangri-La

Freedom-lovers, libertarians and libertines have flocked to my home state ever since the days of the Civil War draft dodgers. Now it seems that, on the eastern edge of Idaho, there still is a little strip of Eden, a place where a man can stand up and break the law with impunity (besides the Legislature).

The corner where Idaho, Montana and Wyoming meet is beautiful. If you look at the map, you can see the boundary between Idaho and Wyoming, and a second, separate line which marks the western boundary of Yellowstone. Between Line A and Line B, argues law professor Brian Kalt, is "a 50-square-mile swath of Idaho in which one can commit felonies with impunity."

Say that you are in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, and you decide to spice up your vacation by going on a crime spree. You make some moonshine, you poach some wildlife, you strangle some people and steal their picnic baskets. You are arrested, arraigned in the park, and bound over for trial in Cheyenne, Wyoming before a jury drawn from the Cheyenne area. But Article III, Section 2 plainly requires that the trial be held in Idaho, the state in which the crime was committed. Perhaps if you fuss convincingly enough about it, the case would be sent to Idaho. But the Sixth Amendment then requires that the jury be from the state (Idaho) and the district (Wyoming) in which the crime was committed. In other words, the jury would have to be drawn from the Idaho portion of Yellowstone National Park, which, according to the 2000 Census, has a population of precisely zero.

It sounds perfectly idyllic.

Thanks to Letters of Marque, who got it from Orin Kerr.

Big Pharm trumps law enforcement in Idaho

My fellow Idahoans love to get tough on crime, but not at the expense of making a buck retailing over-the-counter Sudafed:

Rep. Rich Wills, R-Glenns Ferry, a retired Idaho State Police officer who sponsored a bill to remove most pseudoephedrine products from drugstore shelves, is dismayed at how lawmakers dismantled his bill so that it barely resembles his hard-line effort to get the stuff out of the hands of criminals. To make it more difficult for meth cooks to get the primary ingredient, Wills and a Nampa physician worked on legislation that would have forced pharmacists to regulate sales of the drug.

Instead, ...the Senate approved a bill that would merely require Idaho's 850 retailers to send the state copies of pseudoephedrine purchases. Then the Idaho State Police could study the receipts to see if sales seem too high with certain wholesalers.

...(P)ressure from the pharmaceutical industry, pharmacists and retailers prompted Wills' peers in the House as well as senators to begin tinkering with Wills' proposal. Ultimately, senators opted for what they are calling a "voluntary" effort on the part of retailers to get a better handle on criminals getting the drug from stores.

On sija od sreće

From the coming movie 5 in 500:

Why is this public defender happy? Because he's giving back something to the community.

Listen up, law students, you don't hear that from a lot of BigLaw associates, the happy part or the giving back part.

(Not being consistently happy myself, this 5 in 500 project is very promising, asking "Just what exactly is it that makes you happy?" and stoking my memories of Bosnia and ex-YU people. I'm adding the site to my blogroll after just one visit.)

(Bonus link goes to a photodocumentary site: AFTERMATH: Bosnia's Long Road to Peace)

Go public defenders

Okay, so I'm linking to this for two main reasons:

1. good news on the appellate front out of Colorado; and

2. the novelty of seeing this happy phrase in print - Go Public Defenders

That's right. Go Team - Go Us.

Update: read the good news on CrimProf Blog.

Sometimes in April

Some time in April, if you have HBO, make time to watch Sometimes in April, a movie about the Rwandan genocide, or in the eyes of the Clinton administration, "genocide." ("It all depends on what the definition of 'genocide' is.")

It was filmed on location in Rwanda, in many of the same locations where the killings took place in 1994. It features Idris Elba, actor / uber-mensch who played Stringer Bell in HBO's The Wire (picked up for a new season in 2006).

Then, some time in 2016, make time to watch the upcoming made-for-cable movie about Darfur.

Fountain of Youth in Thurston County

As the old beer jingle used to put it, "It's the water and a lot more":

Man, 80, faces charges of selling crack

An 80-year-old man faces drug charges for allegedly selling crack cocaine and methamphetamine from his home off Martin Way East. Police say Calvin D. Ott is the oldest suspected crack dealer they can recall taking into custody. "This whole thing was just a little bit weird all around," Olympia police Detective Sam Costello said.

I love this town.

"Everyone has the right to serve more jail time"

Inspired by Public Defender Dude's recent airing of dirty laundry, Alaskablawg lays it out to customers satisfied and dissatisfied in an admirably straight-shooting way.

He's right: on a case that looks like a loser, some clients are more satisfied to go to trial and to go down swinging. Their call; we owe them our best trial work we can muster.

Rotting on remand

Here's Ken on the special pre-taste of purgatory that is jail visiting.

Bonus link goes to "Rotting on Remand" by Billy Bragg:

I stood before the Judge that day
As he refused me bail
And I knew that I would spend my time
Awaiting trial in jail
I said there is no justice
As they led me out of the door
And the Judge said, "This isn't a court of justice, son
This is a court of law..."

The limelight beckons!

Some of us have received a most interesting e-mail which seems to be on the up-and-up. With the sender's permission, I'm passing along her proposition:

Dear Skelly:

I am a producer at a New York production company, Stick Figure Productions. We are developing a new television series for Court TV. We are looking for cases for which we will provide - for free -­ the legal services of a renowned defense attorney in exchange for participation in our show. In terms of the case, we are open to different scenarios; our only stipulation is that it not be rape or murder. The case could be criminal or civil ­ it could be a clear case of injustice, or more in the gray zone. The case was (sic) already have a lawyer working on it or it can be unassigned.

Our company's website will give you a sense of the kind of programming we do. We are not 'reality TV' producers: ­ this series for Court TV will be all documentary footage and will in effect showcase the towns and townspeople where the case is taking place, as well as follow a case from start to finish.

If your office is interested in working with us, you can reach me at 212/277-3600.

Many thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.

Mikaela Beardsley

--
Mikaela Beardsley
Producer
Stick Figure Productions
6 West 18th Street 11th Floor
NY, NY 10011
212/277-3600 (office)
212/277-3611 (fax)

Intriguing, no? And who might the renowned defense lawyer be? Anyone out there have a likely case that's ready for prime time? How 'bout you, O.W.? An Alaska crime story would be cool. Or Texas, Texas always has plenty of tales of injustice. What about SoCal: are you in, Dude?

It's not all about you

Our most excellent boss bought us all memberships in the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (WACDL), so now I have access to their super-secret "Members Only" zone.

There I found a link to a recent regional p.d. story that I'd missed:

County's public defender to resign - Anne Harper says although system is a national model, legal care is inconsistent

Anne Harper of Seattle is not saying the public defense system in King County is broken... But she says the quality of the legal care offered by public defenders is inconsistent. She says that quality should be the same, whether the defendant is serial murderer Gary Ridgway or the mom charged with drunken driving.

"If they don't believe they are doing a good job, they generally can't fire their attorney," she said. "If the county is not watching, then no one is watching."...

Harper said she is resigning because she says the focus has become "Anne Harper is doing everything wrong," at the expense of making the system accountable....

"There is a fine line as to how far the county can come into our house and dictate how we run our business," said Dave Chapman, managing director of the Associated Counsel for the Accused...

Harper "tried to micro-manage the cases and the agencies," said (Mark) Prothero (former attorney for serial murderer Gary Ridgway). "That rubbed some attorneys the wrong way."

"You will find good public defenders and not-so-good public defenders," Prothero said. "That's true of any profession."

Lines our clients feed us

A few minutes ago, I got out of attorney visiting at the jail. Plexiglass is thin, and the booths' Cone of Silence technology is faulty. The guy next door was breaching attorney-client confidentiality by a few decibels, so I heard half of a conversation:

"She's lying! The prosecutor knows she is!"
(___________)
"This case is a winner! You want to win a trial, don't you? It would be good for your reputation!"
(___________)
"Aah, you're just working with the prosecutor..."

Bad prosecutor spanked by Idaho Supremes

I don't follow the slip opinions from home as closely as I used to, now that I'm an affiliate member of the Idaho bar. This news, thanks to Crime and Federalism (link via CrimLaw), made me dance a merry jig... figuratively:

You Mean I Can't Lie in the Name of Justice?

A recent Supreme Court decision in Idaho suggests a new line of attack on prosecutorial misconduct.

At an ex parte probable cause hearing a prosecutor named Shari Dodge told a judge that a defendant had once "pulled a shotgun" on a cop. It turns out that wasn't true.

I had my own exposure to this prosecutor during the months I was a p.d. in her county. She struck me as a member of the "let's see how much I can get away with" school of D.A.'s. The niftiest thing was that she had the stones to run against the sitting elected prosecuting attorney (my classmate Dave Young) in last year's Republican primary, while this ethics complaint against her was still pending. That's self-confidence! Better still, the defendant about whom she made her material misrepresentation ran ads against her calling her a liar.

Well, it looks like he was right. When the Supreme Court opinion came down last month, my old co-workers Klaus, Scott, Tom, Dayo et al. probably celebrated with cigars and mariachis. The opinion is Idaho State Bar vs. Dodge, available from the Idaho Supreme Court for the next few months here (PDF file):

Dodge argues that if she is disciplined in this matter it will have a chilling effect on prosecutors, discouraging them from providing relevant information to judges unless every detail can be exhaustively checked...

In response, the ISB argues that as long as there are ethical rules directing lawyers on how to conduct themselves, there will be a chilling effect from those rules. The argument continues that a ruling that one lawyer violated two rules under the particular facts of this case should not, any more than the rules already do, have a chilling effect on prosecutors....

Ultimately, the rules of professional conduct are designed to have a chilling effect, specifically on those types of behavior the rules seek to proscribe. Enforcing those rules may chill desirable behavior in some cases, but the consequences of not enforcing the rules must weigh heavily as well. It is not unrealistic to expect an attorney making a representation to the court purporting to come from personal knowledge to take reasonable steps to assure she is speaking truthfully. It is also not unrealistic to expect an attorney at an ex parte hearing to lay out all material facts, including those that are adverse to the attorney’s position.

This Court declines Dodge’s suggestion that prosecutors be held to a lower standard in providing complete and truthful information to the courts.

As Dave Young said:

"I used to always tell my attorneys 'integrity is easy to lose and impossible to regain' and I think she is experiencing that right now."

Who's schadenfreude-ing now?

Want ads

From SW Virginia Law Blog:

Wanted - lawyers to work for low pay and too many clients who may go to jail if you mess up or sometimes even if you don't

(Blogging's been a little light as the boy and I catch up on our viewing: "Totoro" tonight, "The Incredibles" on Friday, and in between, "Legally Blonde" (working title: "Blonde Justice")!)

(And if you do visit Blondie, follow the comments to her request for Bad Prosecutor stories all the way to these empowering rants from newly-minted p.d. Woman of the Law. Don't you just feel warm all over when people tell you, "you're fooling yourselves to think you are usually the ones on the side of justice"? Even when they use one of your favorite words? If Carpundit and Woman of the Law ever square off in the same courtroom, I'll be there selling tickets.)

Unlicensed p. d. wanna-be update

In all the excitement of the Volokh blogstorm this past weekend, I failed to pass along this news from The Legal Reader:

DA to Prosecute Unlicensed Former Defender, Judge Rules

Follow the link to the local coverage here:

"There exists a real possibility that the District Attorney's Office in this case is overreaching and overcharging and overzealously pursuing this particular case because of the fact that they themselves believe they were duped," Brennan (O'Shea's lawyer) wrote in his motion.

"Motivated by a possible sense of hurt pride and feelings, and a need to save face, there is a strong likelihood that the District Attorney's office is unable to evenhandedly handle this case in the same manner it would handle another type of case in which someone was accused of not having a license and therefore had committed fraud."

"So?" the judge seems to have replied.