[Vision2020] Public Defenders Office

[bubba jones]

Yes, abuses happen.  We have an imperfect system run by imperfect people.  I 
wish it weren't so.  I wish all guilty people were found guilty and all 
innocent people found innocent.  That said,  I also think our system is 
pretty good compared to many others and that the majority of cases are 
handled correctly.   And, yes, if I were falsely accused I would want a PD 
aggressively seeking to get me acquitted.

As an asside, I think all capital cases should go to trial - even if the 
state has a slam dunk case.
B. Jones


>From: "Melynda Huskey" <mghuskey@msn.com>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: Re:[Vision2020] Public Defenders Office
>Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:16:58 -0800
>
>You know, sometimes innocent people require the services of a public 
>defender.  Check out the Justice Project to see what the consequences of 
>lackadaisical public defense are:
>
>www.justiceproject.org
>
>Professor James Liebman, of Columbia University Law School, reviewed 
>capital cases in the U.S. in his
>A Broken System: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995, and found massive 
>error in every aspect of the process:
>
>"The most common errors—prompting a majority of reversals at the state 
>post-conviction stage—are (1) egregiously incompetent defense lawyers who 
>didn’t even look for—and demonstrably missed—important evidence that the 
>defendant was innocent or did not deserve to die; and (2) police or
>prosecutors who did discover that kind of evidence but suppressed it, again 
>keeping it
>from the jury." (The entire report can be found at the Justice Project 
>website.)
>
>Capital cases are the most serious, and rarest, of cases a public defender 
>handles.  What is the error/carelessness/don't-give-a-damn rate for 
>ordinary cases involving poor, uneducated, or otherwise disenfranchised 
>clients?
>
>If you were falsely accused,  would you want a public defender who advised 
>you that you should make a deal to save trouble, or one who would fight it 
>out for you?   I don't want a public defender to be pals with the police or 
>the prosecutor; a civil and professional relationship, by all means, but 
>it's the clients who suffer when the network gets too cozy.
>
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><< message3.txt >>

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