The big SDFLA conference is today. It's a huge event and looks to be very successful. If you are there, take some pictures and I will post them. (email them to me at dmarkus at markuslaw dot com)
One bit of controversy -- it's also the 60th anniversary of Gideon and there's a Gideon panel at the conference. However, there is no public defender on the panel (the panel does include Judge Kathy Williams, the former FPD and David Howard, a criminal defense lawyer). The local criminal defense listserv was fired up about it last night.
In other news, prosecutors are pushing forward with charges against Hunter Biden, including possession of a firearm while being an addict. The problem -- right wing judges have already struck down this statute as unconstitutional.
9 comments:
As we all know, Gideon was an "incorporation" case that held states must provide counsel to those who could not afford to retain counsel. In federal court, the landmark case is Johnson v. Zerbst (1938) which held "If the accused is not represented by counsel and has not competently and intelligently waived his constitutional right, the Sixth Amendment stands as a jurisdictional bar to a valid conviction and sentence depriving him of his life or his liberty."
The real anniversary of federal public defense is next year—the 60th Anniversary of the passage of the Criminal Justice Act which led to the creation of Federal and Community Defender Offices and panels of private lawyers willing to take appointed cases at below-market rates.
To be fair, while the CJA Act was being drafted prior to Gideon, the decision certainly spurred lawmakers to ultimately pass and fund federal public defense.
The funniest possible outcome would be if the right's desire to nail Hunter Biden and their desire to make assault weapons available at streetcorner vending machines collide and the Supreme Court case that says that the 2nd Amendment prohibits mental health/substance abuse/prior felony restrictions on gun ownership is Biden v. United States. Biden the person goes free and the NRA's message to its donors is "With your help, we made Biden possible".
While the panelist and moderator did a nice job and hopefully educated the many civil litigation lawyers in attendance on the right to counsel, the organizers should recognize that not having a PD up there was a glaring omission. On the current state of affairs on the right to counsel, no one knows more and is better versed than Michael Caruso. Full stop. Nor has anyone over the last decade in this district done more to advocate for the indigent accused and the rights of defendants generally than Michael Caruso. As Judge Willams noted, it has been 12 years since she was the FPD. It says much about they really think about public defenders and the CJA lawyers who do the work representing the indigent. But do not worry the PDS and CJA panel lawyers will keep showing up and kicking ass for their clients no matter how out-gunned they are. Otherwise, it was a nice event for which those who put the conference together deserve credit. Estrada and Katyal were excellent.
Overall, it was a very good event. That said, I did think it was a bit odd that Caruso (or another prominent public defender) wasn't on the Gideon panel. Was that intentional or just (kind of a major) oversight?
Ask Caruso
I don't know all the details -- Caruso was to moderate a panel on one thing or the other and withdrew for some conflict. For the people complaining, was Caruso even at the conference?
I was not on the planning committee but my understanding is that a planning committee member did strongly (and on more than one occasion) request that a current public defender be included on the Gideon panel.
I was asked to be a panelist on the sentencing panel. I later requested that another lawyer from the FPD be substituted in my place.
Caruso
Who cares, the panel was great anyways.
Both things can be true. The discussion may have been great but the intentional exclusion of any public defender from a
panel celebrating Gideon is significant.
While you don’t care, there are many who do.
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