Friday, September 9, 2016

lawyers accidents

n Caddo Parish, wdecided to write a letter to the judge, John Mosely Jr, who had assigned him the case. “I understand the current status of the indigent defense office, as well as my civic duty,” he wrote. “But the possibility that a young man could spend a significant amount of time in prison poses a difficult burden on me, considering my rudimentary knowledge ohere Ryan Goodwin was asked to help, budget shortfalls forced the public defender to cut 12 attorney positions, leaving only 22 lawyers to handle more than 15,000 cases. In Lafayette, another populous parish 215 miles south-east of Caddo, the defender had to cut 47 of 65 attorneys. The waitlist there has more than 4,500 defendants, many facing life in prison.ut because the Caddo Parish public defender’s office was suffering from a historic, statewide lack of funding, it could no longer provide counsel to hundreds of its poor clients. To fill the void, judges were randomly assigning the neglected cases to all the lawyers in Shreveport, including those specializing in real estate, personal injury, taxes and adoption. Anyone with a law license, a professional address in the parish and a pulse was placed alphabetically on a list. They could be called on at any moment to take a criminal case, unpaid.cing hundreds of their clients – even those sitting in jail, awaiting trial – on “waitlists” to receive a lawyer. “Conflict cases”, with multiple co-defendants requiring multiple lawyers, had become especially overwhelming for the defenders to handle.
In Caddo Parish, where Ryan Goodwin was asked to help, budget shortfalls forced the public defender to cut 12 attorney positions, leaving only 22 lawyers to handle more than 15,000 cases. In Lafayette, another populous parish 215 miles south-east of Caddo, the defender had to cut 47 of 65 attorneys. The waitlist there has more than 4,500 defendants, many facing life in prison.
The issue now facing judges and courts across the state is how to ensure a functional – and constitutional – justice system in the wake of these shortages. In New Orleans, for example, Judge Arthur Hunter ruled on 8 April that poor defendants sitting on a waitlist must be released from jail until the public defender can represent them. Prosecutors are appealing several of those defendants’ cases .
For Goodwin, this presented a moral dilemma. When he met Norman, he knew he wasn’t fit to represent him, but a court of law was telling him that he was. “I took generic criminal law and criminal procedure in law school, but that’s just two classes separating me from any pe
The issue now facing judges and courts across the state is how to ensure a functional – and constitutional – justice system in the wake of these shortages. In New Orleans, for example, Judge Arthur Hunter ruled on 8 April that poor defendants sitting on a waitlist must be released from jail untilrea of the Caddo correctional center in Shreveport, Louisiana, bracing for an awkward conversation. He had to make an admission to his new client – a 16-year-old who was facing life in prison for stealing someone’s wallet and cellphone at gunpoint.
“I don’t do criminal defense,” he told the teenager, Norman Williams Jr. “But I promise you, I’ll definitely try my  the public defender can represent them. Prosecutors are appealing several of those defendants’ cases .
Everywhere else in the state, however, judges have taken more conservativ

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