http://idta.us Confessions of a prison public defender Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:31:33 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Imagine if the "fine" for underage drinking was a tour of duty in Iraq! (Watch out, Jenna!) It hasn't quite come to that, but our desperate military has expanded their definition of "a few good men" to include more people with felony convictions. Under ... http://idta.us/archives/119 Attorney-client confidentiality has been getting a bad rap this week because of the Alton Logan case. (After lawyers for another man came forward to reveal that their client had admitted to them 26 years earlier that he committed the crime, Alton Logan was released ... http://idta.us/archives/118 I'm sure glad I haven't had to keep a client's secret confession for 26 years, knowing an innocent man was in prison for the crime. Alton Logan's family took up a collection in the lobby of the Cook County Criminal Courthouse and quickly came up with ... http://idta.us/archives/117 I posted earlier this week about winning relief for our client recently at the Court of Criminal Appeals. The book that helped me TREMENDOUSLY in organizing and finishing my brief was The Winning Brief: 100 Tips for Persuasive Briefing in Trial and Appellate Courts. http://idta.us/archives/115 One of my co-workers asked me today, "Why are you here?" I told him I want to be a better criminal-defense lawyer. Tonight I finished reading The Best Defense, by Prof. Alan M. Dershowitz of Harvard Law School. In it, he wrote: The public sometimes ... http://idta.us/archives/114 Recently, the Court of Criminal Appeals granted a writ and overturned the wrongful conviction of one of my clients. That was a wonderful result, and it was heartening that all of the justices who participated in the decision agreed with us. BUT, the ... http://idta.us/archives/113 This article about Rusty Yates starting a new family claims that his first wife was found "innocent" of killing their children. Sloppy reporting like this misleads the public and could hurt people for whom "Not Guilty By Reason of Insanity" would be the ... http://idta.us/archives/112 At first I was intrigued by the headline Home Ransacked After Craigslist Hoax and thought maybe the homeowner had committed a hoax online, and someone tracked him down and retaliated. NOPE! Just a pretty mean trick. (And stupid. They'll get him.) P.S. ... http://idta.us/archives/111 I imagine this is every parolee's and released prisoner's recurring nightmare: Officials say error freed ex-SLA radical. The parole board had already decided to let her go. So after some public criticism, they go looking for an excuse to snatch her back? ... http://idta.us/archives/110 The headline suggests the rapist himself told the judge that he had HIV, but the story reveals it was actually the defendant's *lawyer* who revealed that fact to the judge. And it cost the client a longer prison sentence! That’s longer than he might have ... http://idta.us/archives/109