Revoke for the Balance

"Revoke for the balance"

Words that do not go well together?

Words that you don't like to hear?

Words that give you a sinking feeling?

The real answer: Words I heard today.


My Motion to Recuse the Judge was denied. I stood alone with my client. He had a defeated look on his face. She revoked the balance of his probation.

Public Defense: The New Gay Marriage

The public defense world in Georgia is cracking, crumbling and falling apart. Some may say it's already fallen. It started with the legislature cutting our budget in half mid-year. It continued with bad decisions at the state-wide management level. The office that handles conflict cases for Metro Atlanta (Fulton and Dekalb counties) was shut down with two weeks notice for the employees. Their 1,800 client will be unceremoniously dumped by management onto the plates of various PDs in the area. PDs that already represent the co-defendants in most of those cases. There is a lawsuit to keep it open, filed by members of the criminal defense community who care about the constitution.

There are op-ed pieces by state reps who say that spending less than $1000 to defend a person charged with a felony is A-OK with them. If you are poor and charged with a crime in America, you'd better hope you are anywhere other than Georgia. The op-ed pieces remind me of the Gay Marriage issue from the last election. It's uncanny really. I don't know which is worse: The politicians with dirty motives or the easily swayed, ignorant public who can't recognize bullshit rhetoric that's being flung into their eyes.

How is public defense "the new gay marriage?"

States in the US are still separate entities, no matter how strong the federal government becomes. States are still able to recognize their own laws and policies and determine which laws and policies from other states they will recognize as well. For example: A concealed weapon permit is valid in the state that issued the permit, and some other states will recognize your right to carry a weapon with that other state's permit. BUT, some states do not recognize that right, and if you're carrying you can get arrested despite your permit. If another state's law is against the public policy of your state, your state is not required to recognize that state's law. So, if your state does not recognize same-sex marriage, there's no requirement that you recognize a same-sex marriage from another state. A same-sex couple can't get married in New York and come to Georgia and expect the same rights. They can't get medical benefits, they don't have automatic inheritance rights, they can't come here and get divorces either.

Despite this established policy, in the last election same-sex marriage was a big issue in Georgia. Lots of politicians "came out" (ha ha, I'm clever) in support of a constitutional amendment against same-sex unions. Was there a chance that Georgia would soon change it's laws? Was Georgia the next in line after Vermont and Massachusetts to make it into the 21st fucking century? No. Not even close. There was no way this should have been an issue. Despite the complete uselessness of a constitutional amendment, state reps jumped at the opportunity to get support on this highly emotional issue. They had found a way to motivate conservatives to get out and vote.

Today, Brian Nichols has a public defender, or three. He is accused of killing a judge, a deputy, a Federal Agent in 2005. The State is trying to execute him. His defense bill has been called into question and has been reported at, ballpark: $1.5 million. They have several prosecutors working on this case full time. Several of the prosecutors make, ballpark: $150,000 in salary. There are also State investigators, paralegals, etc. The state plans to call almost 500 witnesses. There is a lot of news coverage here about the case and mostly about his defense bills. The local coverage has lasted long after the national media stopped covering highlights (never the local budget battles). At first there was a lot of national news. Brian Nichols was all over CNN and the like, the manhunt was especially good for generating ad revenue. His girlfriend and meth partner was on Oprah making money selling her story. Everyone here knows Brian Nichols. Everyone knows his lawyers have been paid by the state, although nobody talks about the cost of the prosecution, only the defense.

For a lot of people it is a "hot topic" and an emotional issue to see Brian Nichols being represented by public defenders. Some people are mad that their tax dollars are being spent to give him a defense. Now is the perfect time to make public defense the target of popular hatred. State reps have seized this idea and succeeded in making headlines by cutting the state-wide budget in half. This got them in the news. This got the debate started. This will get people out to vote.

I think the State has done its best to stop citizens from receiving effective representation and to stop them from having constitutional rights. We'll see something on the ballot that will give people the idea that they're helping to fight "the war on crime." It may be as simple as a budget allocation issue, or something as big as the disolution of the state-wide public defender system. If that happens, it won't just be people accused of crimes that each face a life crisis, it'll be a whole lot of their lawyers too.

Our Clients

Our clients often had mental health issues to deal with. Some of them are more severe, some are mild. Some are obvious, and others can hide their various issues well. This past month, a video appeared on youtube showing a young woman on a MARTA train. Supposedly she is now our client and locked up in jail (although in my opinion, our client looks nothing like the girl in the video). I have no idea how the police think they have the right person since she was not arrested at the scene.

Even if this isn't our client, it is a good example of what the court system deals with on a daily basis. If this young woman has mental health problems, she might get some treatment for whatever disorder she may have. If it is not "serious" enough of a disorder, she'll have to proceed through a confusing and frustrating court system designed to go as fast as possible so the judges and prosecutors can get to golf on time.

The one exception would be if she had been assigned to my courtroom. My judge is actually very fair and understands that there are various degrees of crazy and there are people that could use some help. For that, I've come to appreciate my judge more and more, especially when I hear about the other judges in the courthouse.

More Appointments to Miss

It's amazing how many people fail to show up for meetings with their lawyers. I am more stressed about their cases than they are. I have three appointments scheduled for todday and one tomorrow. Two of these were previously missed appointments that I rescheduled.

Some people do show up for trial never having met me, and then expect to have a trial. Scary thought. If you were charged with a crime and faced jail time, wouldn't you move in with your lawyer and look over his/her shoulder to make sure he/she was doing everything possible to win your case? I do have one client who keeps in touch quite a bit. He lives across the street from my office, so he pops in every once and a while to chat about his case. I can tell he actually cares, and is stressed about his charge. Maybe he's more innocent than the others? Or more guilty? Who knows, I'm not the jury.

Broken Appointments

I had two office appointments scheduled for today, neither of which showed up. Although, it's early... only 1:55. My 1:00 may materialize.

I was at the doctor's office this morning... I may not need surgery on my knee! It's in a soft brace now, MRI to follow later this week.

Injury keeping me out?

I have court in 7 hours and I am suffering from a soccer related injury. I think I tore my ACL or MCL in my knee. It's bending the wrong way, which is never a good sign.

Tomorrow is jail pleas, but luckily it is a short calendar and then I'm off to the doctor... wish me luck!

There is no state of Georgia

It was Tuesday, so we had arraignments on the calendar. One defendant brought a friend with him from a "fringe" religious group. The friend was dressed in a small black turban, gold crown, black leather arm bracers (covering his forearms), a big dark green robe, and a thick black leather belt. I later overheard him say, "I dress as the apostles dressed." He looked like a cross between a zealous Dungeons & Dragons player/character and the paranoid schizophrenic guy that talks to everyone on the corner downtown.... maybe he was both?

So, he got a talking to several times in the courtroom when he tried to come up to the attorney desks. People from the Solicitor's office tried to tell him that only attorneys were allowed up there. His response was "I am an attorney." To which they asked, "are you licensed by the state of Georgia to practice law?" Of course not silly, he doesn't believe in the state of Georgia, nor its laws, nor its jurisdiction, there is only God's jurisdiction. He kept interrupting the Solicitors while they were trying to talk to the guy that brought him as his 'brother in Christ."

The guy who was actually charged in this court had a DUI and brought this character as a 'counselor' or advisor or something. The guy who actually had the case was not as hard-core as the apostle character. He did have a long black trench coat on, which was a little odd... but no crown. Other than that, he seemed rather ordinary looking. He was a young, 20 something African-American guy with short hair and a silver hoop earring. The 'counselor' and the DUI defendant tried pretty hard to tell the solicitor that there was no laws except God's law and that the state of Georgia has no jurisdiction over them. The apostle character was amazingly persistent, especially for someone that's not themselves charged in the case. There was mention of some time in 1983 when a messiah type person came and liberated everyone from this world or something, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to their conversation. I wish I had been listening up for that part.

When the defendant went in front of the judge there were all of a sudden a lot of large deputies in the courtroom. It was interesting to see them materialize out of nowhere. When the counselor/apostle dude came up to join his buddy at the podium the judge asked who he was and he provided the ID of "Brother in Christ" to the defendant. Well, OK, defendants can only come to the podium with their attorneys, are you licensed to practice law by the state of Georgia? "There is no state of Georgia or laws of Georgia, there is only God's law." OK, you can go ahead and stand with your buddy there. Now, defendant dude, you are charged with DUI, are you going to hire a lawyer? "Honestly judge, I am just feeling oblivion to these charges." Really? You don't look oblivion. "I mean oblivious, or whatever, I don't know what to make of this case." At this point the apostle/brother jumped back into the conversation, saying, "there is only God's jurisdiction, and there is no jurisdiction over us here." The judge corrected him saying, "you're in my jurisdiction now, and you can leave the courtroom." I was sad to see the apostle go. I just knew there was so much more crazy stuff he was going to say. I wanted him to have a chance to educate us on the rest of the issues that he had with the state of Georgia (or lack thereof).

I'm really looking forward to our next court date together. I want to see if they submit to Georgia's jurisdiction and hire a lawyer, or if they argue that the court does not have power over them. That raises a whole lot of questions for his defense. If Georgia has no jurisdiction, and there is only God's law, does God allow DUI? Maybe God's legislature hasn't passed any DUI laws? Maybe alcohol does not affect people who are not "in Georgia" although they appear to be "in Georgia" to the rest of us. Very interesting jurisdictional issues for the judge to figure out.

Filing Instructions

I looked at an insert in a legal publication that I received at the end of 2007. The book is a 2008 edition of a criminal trial practice manual. Lots of times legal books are updated with pocket parts which you insert in the back of the book, or supplements which you keep close at hand when referencing the book. This was a complete replacement, and the insert has filing instructions which are a bit too complicated for me to follow:

"Enclosed is the 2007-2008 Edition... This volume is up to date and replaced all previous editions of this book.

FILING INSTRUCTIONS:
1) DISCARD or RECYCLE the 2007 Edition
2) PLACE the new 2007-2008 Edition on your desk or shelf."

Given that it will only be lawyers who look into books like this, did they really think someone with that much education needs to be told how to place the book on their desk? Maybe it's not despite our education, it's because of it? Sometimes, more eduction = less sense.

"I have nuclear powers"

A defendant came into court for Jail Pleas on Friday. He was clearly crazy in a "holy crap that's some crazy shit he's saying, no, for real, crazy like he actually believes the voices in his head." Not in a, "wow that lawyer asked for a formal arraignment he's crazy" kind of way.

I didn't talk to this guy, but I saw him at the podium talking to the judge and taking a plea. When she asked him how old he was, he answered by asking her to follow the recommendation of the prosecutor. Not so crazy yet. Then when the judge finished getting him through the plea, the real fireworks started. He had several exchanges with the judge and all of them were pleasant enough, there was no yelling, ranting, raving, etc.

He asked if she could do anything about the software in his head. (she said no). He then told her about how nervous he felt in the courtroom because there were a lot of people in there and he felt like they could explode any minute. (She told him he was safe) Then he told her that he had power. Real power. Nuclear power. In fact, he warned everyone that he might go off at any time and they should be careful because he didn't know what might happen. Again, the judge told him that everything would be fine.

Then one of the deputies told him that he was going to have to get back on the spaceship, to which he replied, "OK, let's get going."

Harassing Phone Calls

I had a trial yesterday for Harassing Phone Calls... yes, a jury trial.

I got a directed verdict on Simple Assault and the second count of harassing phone calls. The jury convicted of one count and he was time served.

I love that we're spending tax dollars on harassing phone call jury trials.

Pick your battles I guess, let the violent crimes go, but balls to the walls for phone the phone call cases.

The prosecutor also got into some questionably unprofessional tactics as well, but that's for a day with more time to post.