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Incorrigible Dicta
Platitudes and Diatribes from the Best Defense Money Can’t Buy

Sun Tzu and the Art of Criminal Defense, part 3

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Sun Tzu and the Art of Criminal Defense

Chapter II,

Waging War

1.    Generally, operations of war require one thousand fast four-horse chariots, one thousand four-horse wagons covered in leather, and one hundred thousand mailed troops.

2.    When provisions are transported for a thousand li expenditures at home and in the field, stipends for the entertainment of advisers and visitors, the cost of materials such as glue and lacquer, and of chariots and armor, will amount to one thousand pieces of gold a day.  After this money is in hand, one hundred thousand troops may be raised.

War is expensive.  Trials are expensive too.  There’s discovery motions to be filed, arguments to be made before the court, bail to be argued about, appealed, and posted, investigations to be done, experts to be hired, social workers to be contracted.  And, of course, lawyers to be paid.
Now, we’re not talking gold pieces here (neither did Sun Tzu – the term he uses actually refers more to metallic currency), but these expenditures are still very real.  One can rack up quite a tally with prolonged trial.  One might be able to use this to one’s advantage, by causing the prosecution to exert more of their resources than you do.  But it’s not necessarily Sun Tzu’s recommendation.

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Posted by Alex Ramos on July 30th, 2009 :: Filed under Tactics and Trial Strategies
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Wasn’t this a Chris Rock joke?

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A prominent black Harvard professor was arrested in Cambridge in his own home, because someone thought he had broken in.

Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s pre-eminent African-American scholars, was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. The incident raised concerns among some Harvard faculty that Gates was a victim of racial profiling.

Yup.  I think I’ll leave this one without comment.

Edit: Actually, I’ll add my favorite line from the story as a little added je ne sais quois.

[Harvard professor of medicine S. Allan Counter], who had called Gates from the Nobel Institute in Sweden (emphasis added – ed), where Counter is on sabbatical, said that Gates was “shaken” and “horrified” by his arrest.

Counter has faced a similar situation himself. The well-known neuroscience professor, who is also black, was stopped by two Harvard police officers in 2004 after being mistaken for a robbery suspect as he crossed Harvard Yard. They threatened to arrest him when he could not produce identification.

…Seriously.

Posted by Alex Ramos on July 21st, 2009 :: Filed under In the News
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Call to Action for the Private Bar

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Today I visited the Malden District Court with a client, where a person who shall remain anonymous (but not a defense attorney) told me, “I could tell you must be CPCS; they’re the only ones who care about their clients.”

I know this is a false statement.  I have seen many private attorneys and bar advocates go above and beyond for their clients on countless occasions.

I have also seen many private attorneys and bar advocates dodge trials, minimize work, and do a disservice to their clients by giving less than the full zealous advocacy that they owe.

It’s up to you, attorneys: every single one of us is responsible to fight for our clients’ stated objectives,* give them the best advice possible about their options, and stand up to those who view them as so subhuman that the facts and law do not matter.  We must prove to the world that defense attorneys are not just in it for the paycheck, nor are we mere ushers to the penitentiary.  To the extent that we may sometimes feel downtrodden and irrelevant, it is up to us to prove our relevance.  Go.  Fight.  Win.

Posted by AndyCowan on July 16th, 2009 :: Filed under Client Service
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Investigator Taken into Custody (New Orleans)

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Gwen Filosa, of the New Orleans Times Picayune, reports:

An Orleans Parish judge today held a public defender and a newly hired investigator in contempt of court for trying to interview a 12-year-old girl and her 8-year-old sister in connection with a rape case without the permission of the children’s mother.

My favorite choice quote: “This matter is not new today,”[ADA Joe] Meyer said. “Every judge in this building has confronted this issue of there are people dying out there because of irresponsible activities by defense attorneys. There are people every day refusing to testify.”

He seems to have confused “zealous advocacy” with “irresponsible activities.”  Interviewing witnesses is what we’re *supposed* to do!  Not interviewing witnesses, especially in a case as serious as rape, could variously be called “malpractice,” “ineffective assistance of counsel,” or “a violation of the attorney’s duty of zeal.”1

Brethren, every time a judge or an ADA pisses you off, be thankful you don’t have to deal with what our comrades in New Orleans do.

Edit Thursday, 7/15/09, 9:29 PM.  See how I make a note that I’m editing my story when I do it?  Gwen Filosa and nola.com don’t do that.  In the nola.com story as it existed this morning, it said that the investigator spoke with the children while they were out with a sitter as the mother rested after a medical procedure.  That section has since been removed.  WIth the facts as they are currently presented, it looks like the investigator just took the kids. Not so, according to Filosa’s own prior reporting.  This edit earns the “bad journalism” and “media criticism” tags, which were already in the dictablog tag cloud, but hadn’t yet been applied to this post.

1Of course, there are cases where counsel might make a strategic decision not to interview a particular witness or witnesses. Likelihood of the defense team being arrested should not be a factor in this equation.

Posted by AndyCowan on July 16th, 2009 :: Filed under A Day in the Life, Client Service, In the News
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