Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | January 6, 2010
Back in November, Kent Schaffer must have been feeling pretty good. Schaffer, one of Houston’s top criminal defense lawyers, had been appointed by Judge David Hittner to, along with the Public Defender, represent R. Allen Stanford in the juiciest criminal case in town. When Schaffer took the case it was at the CJA’s $110-an-hour rate, [...]
Mark Bennett | December 11, 2008
From Alex Bunin, Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of New York, comes “Federal Convictions Reversed,” this collection (pdf) of summaries of appellate cases reversing federal convictions (not sentences). An invaluable resource to the federal criminal defense lawyer, but that’s to be expected — the various public defenders’ offices are still and likely always [...]
Mark Bennett | December 2, 2008
As a matter of constitutional law and legal ethics, quality representation for the poor is not negotiable. If the state doesn’t want to pay for indigent defense, it needs to prosecute fewer people (or at least fewer poor people).
Kansas Defenders (H/T Capital Defense Weekly).
The actual experts seem to agree on this one: the New York [...]
Mark Bennett | November 25, 2008
From The Agitator and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina criminal defense lawyer Bobby Frederick (if I ever get tossed in jail in South Carolina, I’m calling Bobby Frederick to bust me out): Jacksonville, Florida public “defender” Matt Shirk, elected to be tough on crime (“His campaign promises included a vow not to oppose funding cuts to [...]
Mark Bennett | November 21, 2008
The New York Times suggests a solution to the problem of insufficient funding for indigent defense:
With states struggling to come up with financing for schools and hospitals, we fear politicians are unlikely to argue for significantly more money for public defenders’ offices. To solve the immediate crisis, new sources of support would have to be [...]
Mark Bennett | August 18, 2008
Western Justice points out that the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act of 2008 has been signed into law. I’m sure I’ve missed hoopla about this elsewhere, since there was lots of hoopla about it last May. Now that I have more than six readers, I’ll ask again the two multiple-choice questions that [...]
Mark Bennett | July 5, 2008
The ABA’s Ten Principles of a Public Defense Delivery System:
1. The public defense function, including the selection, funding, and payment of defense counsel, is independent.
2. Where the caseload is sufficiently high, the public defense delivery system consists of both a defender office and the active participation of the private bar.
3. Clients are screened for eligibility, [...]
Mark Bennett | April 9, 2008
(I write blog posts offline in Ecto. When I have a new idea for a post, I create a new post and title it, then set it aside until I feel like writing it. This one’s been brewing for a while, so I wanted to get a couple of thoughts down in bits and bytes [...]
Mark Bennett | April 8, 2008
Today Harris County Commissioner’s Court approved the creation by the County’s Management Services Department of a study and recommendation on the feasibility of establishing a Public Defender’s Office in Harris County.
If the study reveals that a PD’s Office will provide a cost savings over the current ad hoc appointment system (Grits agrees with me that [...]
Mark Bennett | March 18, 2008
In a comment to my “Who Are You” poll post, reader Sean Shopes writes:
While I checked the “non-lawyer, elsewhere” box I thought I’d chime in as a criminal defense professional – I am a defense investigator in San Francisco. I am curious about your thoughts regarding defense investigators (to include Public Defender Investigators as well [...]
