It's public defender intern season. Here's a report from Alaska, from Justin of Baylor Law School:
Aside from the legal community, Alaska is a great place to intern because of the numerous opportunities for outdoor activity here... It’s not unusual to see a moose or two on your way to work, and sometimes they even come right up to the office.
A bit of doggerel from Jaime the P.D. Intern at Red Red Whine:
I'm more than a little punchy and can barely keep my eyes open. So, in this totally delirious state, I give you The Public Defender's Tale based upon my time at the PD’s office. Yeah, kind of like the Canterbury Tales, but Chaucer I'm not...
From WLJA:
D.C. Man Convicted of Killing Public Defender Intern
The U.S. Attorney's Office says a Washington man has been convicted of killing an intern with the Public Defender Service last year... Twenty-one-year-old Donnell Harris was found guilty Monday of second-degree murder while armed in connection with the death of Michael Richardson...
"(A)fter a week of working at the federal public defender's office," Duoly Noted reports on
The Emotional Toll of Being a Public Defender
Here with a reply is Jeremy Irons:
"You have no idea..."
Petition for Review ended up having a good day at work:
Public Defender Intern - 1, Private Counsel with a coke problem - 0
Today was insane. I had to push people out of the way to get in and out of the courtroom. While I'm talking with other clients License Boy and his parents somehow start talking to a private attorney. Private attorney (we'll call him Moron) is apparently hungry for clients...
Read on for the surprise ending. The old dog in me says, don't get cocky, kid, but the p.d. in me says, congratulations, new colleague, go get 'em.
Well-written post from Dangerblond in New Orleans:
drugs and tennis shoes
Tonight, there were about 15 prisoners at HOD. Also, Popeye was back, making short work of a po-boy from Mandina’s. The older deputy told me that things had calmed down since this weekend, when there were 40 people arrested on Saturday and 30 on Sunday.
I said, “what happened? Everybody being good all of a sudden?”
He said, “no indeed. The cops just don’t want to arrest anybody...”
By now you've heard of this:
All-white jury clears 8 in boot-camp death of boy
Acquittal Fits the Pattern in Boot Camp Deaths
I can't find the words...
In other Florida news, this, also from the South Florida Sun - Sentinel:
Public defender intern in Broward had been arrested for sex with teen
A Coral Springs man whose stepdaughter is in Broward juvenile court said he "almost had a heart attack" when he learned her assistant public defender once was arrested for having sex with a minor. "We were shocked," said Steve Potgieter, 38. "We were like, this is the twilight zone; this cannot be."
It turns out Bryan Docobo, 26, is an intern newly hired by the Broward Public Defender's Office... In May 2005, Docobo, then 23, had consensual sex with a 15-year-old Cooper City girl he met on the Internet. He pleaded no contest to two misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and was sentenced to one year's probation...
Public defender intern Kimberly gets it. From Dangerblond:
I’m taking a class this semester on Louisiana Criminal Procedure, taught by a guy who works in the Orleans Public Defender’s office... We’ve been asked to observe some criminal proceedings for the class, and I figured the best way to go about it would be to intern down there a few hours a week... Today was my first day of interviewing prisoners prior to their first appearances...
My job was to quickly determine indigent status and to fill out certificates stating that they qualified to be represented by a public defender. I also got contact numbers and personal data... After the attorney interviewed them, I went back to the office to call their contacts. Most of them already knew about the arrests, but the brother in California did not. He sounded weary. I really can’t imagine how it serves society to have this old man in jail for crack and make his poor brother deal with a bail bondsman from long distance. Society exacts its punishment on the family members for the mistake of having a drug-addled brother...
From Not for the monosyllabic:
Whew, I've been busy, busy, busy with the PD's office. I've been making appearance in the juvenile calendar lately, which is a lot of fun because I don't just have to sit there anymore. I've also been dubbed the "Friday Jail Calendar Queen" by TS because I'm always on Friday's jail calendar. I told TS I wanted a crown and he said he'd get one from Burger King and write "Friday Jail Calendar Queen" on it for me...
I also told TS that I was planning on sticking around for the next school year and then planning on making TS give me a job. TS's eyes lit up and he said, "You wanna be a public defender?" and I said, "Yeah, I do. Specifically at this office." TS then said, all touched, "You wanna work at this office?!"...
Law student Gopherlawyer has an F. Scott - inspired epiphany on a trip to juvenile detention:
"In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.
'Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,' he told me, 'just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.'"
From the Washington Post:
Public Defender Intern Recalled As Positive Example for Youths
Michael Richardson, 30, an intern with the D.C. Public Defender Service who was fatally shot Friday at the Steak & Egg Breakfast restaurant on Ninth Street NW, knew the streets from his job and from personal experience...
Richardson worked with a Georgetown University paralegal program and had taken courses at the University of the District of Columbia in preparation for applying to law school...
The living hell that is law school:
Busy, law school, y'know, all that. I have been busy not going to trusts and estates and getting myself another job, since the handy Public Defender's office in a great New England state decided to place me in an office almost 2 hours away from my beach house...
Our loss I guess.
For getting an unpaid public defender position and all, this law student is very enthusiastic:
And who should be on that voice mail? The Public Defender I interviewed with... Who by the way is the coolest human being ever. And he's asking me if I want the job. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Congratulations, and share some of that upbeat attitude with your new co-workers.
Legally Brunette on:
How I Know I've Been Spending Too Much Time With the Public Defenders
Each time I woke up, I had dreamed the same Four Things. I'm a little weirded out...
Whatever happened to visions of sugarplums dancing in my head???
Allow me:
Law student Sfrajett receives an annuciation at the Public Interest Job Fair:
I spoke with people at legal aid clinics, child services, and the public defender's office--all lovely, friendly, skeptical people who loved their work...
A little man with white hair that stood out in wispy strands around his face shook my hand. His baggy sweater hung on his shoulders... "Do you know what we do?" he asked.
I confessed that I didn't... He nodded his head, satisfied. "We do post-conviction habeas petitions for people on death row."
"Fabulous!" I breathed. I couldn't help it. It just came out...
Read on for how things go from there.
Bonus links: "Hey man, my school day's insane /
Hey man, my work's down the drain..."
Lindsay Lou at my old law school observes:
If there was one thing I learned from my summer at a public defender's office, it was that the best dressed PD clients in the courtroom are probably facing DUI charges. Why? Because... (i)t affects everyone. Even the children of United State Supreme Court justices.
A well-to-do law school classmate is chatting with Meewt about her people:
"I worked in the public defenders office and realized - I don't understand the people there. But these gossipy snippy snotty people - that's what I know, so it's where I'm comfortable."
From Nicolle the law student, "the last refuge of the persecuted crack smoker":
love for the PD
i love my clinic at the public defender so much; i wish i didn't have to take class, and i could just spend forty or fifty hours a week there. they'd clearly have enough work for me to do, and i can't get enough of it. i love it.
Here are Throckmorton's latest adventures in public defense, with a sad - but - true epiphany about the Sixth Amendment:
while the constitution guarantees a right to counsel, nowhere does the law guarantee that a criminal defendant gets to have unlimited access to his/her attorney and have his/her hand held throughout the process...
if i'm truly going to do this work, i'd better build up a thicker skin. what i fear in that process, though, is crossing the line from thick-skinned to calloused... it's going to be a real struggle to compartmentalize how available i'll be able to be versus how emotionally involved i can become.
Stick with it, Emily. Most of us in the ranks are still trying to figure this out too.
An intern in the Bay Area is discovering that "law school doesn't teach you anything about probation and parole," and in the process really helped someone today:
Short story first, long story to follow:
This guy was right, he was actually being held in jail for the past 30 days by MISTAKE and should have been released! What kind of major suck is that?!...
The Best Day So Far.
and it's still only June.
