Tangled Set of Events Lead to Shooting by Bounty Hunters

A long article in theNews Tribune sorts out the events that led to bounty hunters shooting a defendant who skipped his bail. The bail bond agency had turned the man over to Tacoma police, but they did not jail him because he told them and the FBI that he could lead them to a U.S. Army missile. What he did show them was a piece of bazooka ammunition -- not much of a missile -- and he never got to jail. The prosecutor said that the bail bond agency was still on the hook for $150,000 because it had delivered the defendant to the police instead of the jail. So the bail bond agency hired bail recovery agents to round him up again. When he rammed their car and reached for something in his front seat, they shot him fatally. Why the bounty hunters killed Robin Hood | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA.

$3M Verdict for Wrongful Discharge of Pierce County Dep. Pros.

County hit with big jury award | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA, Aug. 17, 2008.

The Pierce County Prosecutor fired Barbara Corey, the number-3 prosecutor in his office, in 2004. She sued and, this week, won a $3 million verdict from a King County jury.

The jury was asked to rule on a number of specific questions and found:

• The Prosecutor’s Office negligently disseminated confidential investigatory information.

• The office engaged in malicious and reckless conduct and defamed Corey directly and by implication.

• The office placed Corey in a false light before the public.

• The office intentionally disclosed information and its conduct was outrageous.

• The office wrongfully terminated Corey.

The county has not decided whether to appeal.

Green River Killer case started 26 years ago Tuesday

The PI's crime blog, Seattle 911, has a post reflecting on the Green River Killer case: Green River Killer case started 26 years ago Tuesday, Seattle 911, Aug. 12, 2008.

The Amateur Law Professor

Check out The Amateur Law Professor, a blog by a Justin Walsh, a new associate at Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio. (Until recently, this blog was by Justin Walsh, a law student at Seattle U.) It "contains updates on Washington Supreme Court and Washington Court of Appeals decisions, local and national legal news, and the odd bit of humor to keep things interesting."

For other law-related blogs in Washington, see this list.

National Immigrant Bond Fund

Fund Would Aid Those Seized In Workplace Raids, NPR, Aug. 11, 2008, tells about Bob Hildreth, a financier in Massachusetts, who was so moved by an immigration raid that arrested 400 undocumented workers in New Bedford last year that he helped found the National Immigrant Bond Fund.

"Bond is important, because it starts the whole process of realizing the rights you are guaranteed by the constitution of the United States," Hildreth says.

One is the right to obtain a lawyer. Immigrants are not entitled to a court-appointed lawyer for deportation proceedings, but often they rely on the pro-bono services of advocacy groups. The problem is that when they are in a remote federal detention center thousands of miles from family, the situation is a logistical nightmare.

One defense lawyer says the common practice of moving illegal immigrants across the country has created an "access-to-justice crisis." * * *

* * *

Backers acknowledge that many of those bailed out may not have a right to stay in the U.S. in the end, but they say some could qualify for asylum or could be helpful in convicting abusive employers.

Study Finds Settling Is Better Than Going to Trial - NYTimes.com

Study Finds Settling Is Better Than Going to Trial - NYTimes.com, Aug. 7, 2008.

The researchers looked at 2,054 civil cases that went to trial from 2002 to 2005. In a majority of cases that went to trial, the plaintiffs recovered less than they had been offered in settlement.

Most cases do settle -- and we can't tell whether the plaintiffs who settled would have done better at trial.

The researchers are Randall L. Kiser (principal analyst at DecisionSet, a consulting firm that advises clients on litigation decisions), Martin A. Asher (an economist at the University of Pennsylvania), and Blakeley B. McShane (a graduate student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania). The article will be in the Sept. 2008 issue of the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies.

In negotiations, defense attorneys might want to say: "Hey, take our offer, because most plaintiffs don't do any better going to trial." Indeed, the Times story opens:

Note to victims of accidents, medical malpractice, broken contracts and the like: When you sue, make a deal.

But any given plaintiff (and counsel) won't know whether that will be true in his or her case. After all, if 61% of plaintiffs are worse off, aren't 39% better off going to trial? And would defendants start making lower offers if they believe that plaintiffs -- because of this study -- will be more eager to settle?

The Times now allows comments. I thought these were interesting:

Could it be because it is not always about the money? That people suing are motivated to get their day in court, believing there is a righteousness on their side stronger than the odds when flipping a coin? So this study shows their legal (and usually more public) vindication has a cost, interesting, but not really surprising.

I don't think lawyer-ing and the outcomes of decisions to go to trial should be measured in this way--that more money won for clients equals improvement "in the field". . . .

— JPM, Zurich

It probably requires a certain percentage of people willing to go to trial to keep the settlement offers in the range where most parties consider it worthwhile to settle rather than chance trial. That is, it may be the most efficient market already.

— JCA, Bay Area, CA

Thanks: Maureen Howard

Public Defenders Office Deals With Backlog | KIMA CBS 29 - News, Weather and Sports - Yakima, WA - Yakima, Washington 29 | Local & Regional

A local TV station ran a story about the Yakima public defender's office huge caseload. Public Defenders Office Deals With Backlog | KIMA CBS 29 - News, Weather and Sports - Yakima, WA - Yakima, Washington 29 | Local & Regional, Aug. 6, 2008. Dan Fessler, the head of the Yakima County Department of Assigned Counsel, likened the situation of more defendants and not enough resources to the famous episode of "I Love Lucy" when she tries to keep up with a conveyer belt in a candy factory. If you click on the link for the story, you'll even see a clip of Lucy.

Thanks: Arbitrary and Capricious (via Karen Schneiderman).

Drug dealers buy vineyards to hide pot

News from the Yakima Valley: Drug dealers buy vineyards to hide pot | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA, Aug. 9, 2008. Environmentalists take note: one clue to this new use of the land is water consumption, because marijuana requires much more irrigation than grapes.

Lessons from Sherman Alexie

Sherman Alexie lists Sixty-One Things I Learned During the Sonics Trial, The Stranger, July 29, 2008.

1. I've given thousands of speeches, readings, and interviews, and once gave shit to then president Bill Clinton for claiming Cherokee heritage when we appeared together in 1998 on NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS. But the trial testimony in Seattle vs. Sonics was by far the most terrifying and stressful public speaking gig I've ever had to endure.

Think of that whenever you prepare a witness to testify.

12. For those of you who think that sports doesn't matter as much as literature, at least in Seattle, please count the column inches devoted to my Sonics testimony as opposed to the inches devoted to my recent National Book Award win.

I for one am impressed by the National Book Award. And I read the book, too, and it's doggone good.

42. Of course, there are plenty of things that I wanted to say—I tried to get the city's lawyers to let me say them—but I would have been objected clear out of the courtroom. If I had tried to speak as I actually speak—with a whirling and spinning and beautiful and ugly and intelligent and stupid stream of metaphors, profanity, dick jokes, insults, Whitman and Dickinson quotations, Hall & Oates lyrics, the lifetime statistics of my favorite 127 NBA players of all time, and aching grief songs for my father—I would have been held in contempt and tossed into a holding cell.

43. But my lawyer friends were shocked that I was allowed to say as much as I did. One friend said, "The judge gave you a lot of room." Yes, she did. Thank you, Judge Pechman.

What was Alexie's testimony, anyway? See Avid fan Sherman Alexie compares NBA players to Greek gods, Seattle Times, June 20, 2008; Sherman Alexie takes stand (quite funny), Seattle PI Sonics Trial blog, June 19, 2008.

Juries blog

Take a look at Juries, a blog by Prof. Thaddeus Hoffmeister of the University of Dayton School of Law. There are lots of interesting posts on a variety of issues. He picks up news from around the world (e.g., Gibraltar, Jamaica, Ireland). And he had regular posts listing recent scholarship.

Justice Dept. Report on Hiring Finds Violations - NYTimes.com

Justice Dept. Report on Hiring Finds Violations - NYTimes.com, July 29, 2008:

Senior aides to former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broke Civil Service laws by using politics to guide their hiring decisions, picking less-qualified applicants for important nonpolitical positions, slowing the hiring process at critical times and damaging the department’s credibility, an internal report concluded on Monday.

Study Finds Fewer Immigration Judges, Even Though DOJ Promised More

Study Finds Fewer Immigration Judges, Even Though DOJ Promised More, July 28, 2008:

Despite a Justice Department promise to seek funds for a substantial increase in Immigration Judges, the number of these judges today is below what it was in 2006, according to a special new report by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC).

Race, Justice & the Military - Thursday

A tribute to the veterans of the 1944 court martial at Ft. Lewis recounted in On American Soil will kick off with a panel at Seattle University: Race, Justice & the Military. The panel is at 5:00, Thur. July 24, in Pigott Auditorium. Speakers include Jack Hamann, Gen. Timothy Lowenberg, Robert Chang, James Bible, and Margaret Chon (moderator).

More than 1,000 prisoners return from out of state | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

More than 1,000 prisoners return from out of state | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA, July 20, 2008. Washington has been sending some prisoners to out-of-state prisons for the last six years. It is now starting to return them to prisons -- or work-release -- here.

Worldwide Knife Crime Survey - Fastcase

The Fastcase Blog has an interesting piece summarizing a BBC report on knife crime -- violent knife crimes are up in Britain, so the BBC took a look at other parts of the world. Worldwide Knife Crime Survey, Fastcase Blog, July 17, 2008.


Fastcase is an online legal information system trying to compete with the industry giants of Westlaw and LexisNexis. it offers 50-state and federal coverage and (little surprise) more affordable pricing plans.

Fastcase also produces the Public Library of Law, purportedly the world's largest free law library. It includes U.S. Supreme Court cases (all the way back), federal court of appeals cases (1950-date), cases from all 50 states (1997-date), and federal and state statutes .

Gerry Spence’s Blog

What do I have in common with famed trial lawyer Gerry Spence? That's right: we're both bloggers. He started his blog on July 16: Gerry Spence’s Blog.

I have learned things about our broken judicial system I want to expose to you.

I have ideas about our condition in this slave-hold under which many decent Americans suffer.

* * *

My greatest fear is that I will die before my life’s work is complete. That unfinished business includes joining you in this internet world and sharing with you what I have learned. I hope you will hear my timid knocking at your door and let me in.

Kafka Comes to America: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror

In Kafka Comes to America, Steven T. Wax -- the long-time Federal Public Defender for Oregon -- recounts his experience representing two clients, Brandon Mayfield and Adel Hamad.

Mayfield was a youngish attorney starting a practice in Beaverton, OR. Then he was suddenly in the international news, arrested as a material witness in the Madrid train station bombings, with leaks from the government indicating that his fingerprint matched one found on a bag of explosives. Much later, it was revealed that the Spanish National Police never agreed with the FBI's identification and in fact eventually matched the print to an Algerian suspect. By the way, it appears that the FBI focused on Mayfield largely because he was a Muslim married to an Egyptian-American.

Hamad was one of several Guantánamo detainee's Wax's office represented. Sudanese, he had spent years working for relief organizations in Pakistan and Afghanistan: he taught school in a refugee camp and he was a hospital administrator. One day Pakistani police -- along with someone with an American accent -- picked him up in his apartment in July 2002. He was questioned (again and again) in a prison in Pakistan, suffering physically to the point that his captors hospitalized him, and then in March 2003 questioning and rough treatment in the Middle East, he was flown to Guantánamo. Two years later, after Rasul v. Bush, 542 U.S. 466, Findlaw (2004) the Army notified detainees that they could petition for habeas corpus and, in March 2005, Hamad handwrote his petition. It was in February 2006 that he first met his lawyer. In December 2007, he finally returned home. He still hopes to have a hearing that will declare that he never was an enemy combatant.

The book presents a good picture of the multi-faceted advocacy Hamad's team presented -- administrative, judicial, political. They interviewed his family and colleagues in Sudan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. They met with high-ranking Sudanese government officials (and they often couldn't get their calls to U.S. officials returned). One way they increased awareness of his situation was through videos on YouTube, first Guantánamo Unclassified (narrated by one of the public defender investigators):



and then Guantánamo: Waiting for Justice (introduced by Martin Sheen):




For more, visit projecthamad.org.


The book will be available in the library in a couple of days.

Public Interest Law Seminar and Roundtable in Dublin Ireland | UW School of Law - Public Service Voices

Michele Storms (Director of the Gates Public Service Law Program) reports on a conference she attended in Ireland that brought together public interest lawyers from the U.S. and Ireland. One of the organizers was Prof. Walter Walsh, and four UW law students who are working at public interest organizations in Ireland attended. See Public Interest Law Seminar and Roundtable in Dublin Ireland | UW School of Law - Public Service Voices, July 10, 2008.

Nat'l Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel

The Brennan Center for Justice (at NYU School of Law) reports (July 11, 2008):

The National Coalition for a Civil Right to Counsel has launched its new website, providing advocates and the public with a much-needed information source and a way to coordinate efforts to expand recognition of a right to counsel in civil cases. The Coalition is comprised of over 150 advocates from national and state-based groups and the website is a great place to find the latest news developments, relevant case law, research and policy studies, and updates on current "civil Gideon" efforts in both legislatures and the courts, as well as information on ways to promote a civil right to counsel in your state.

Your Witness

Your Witness: Lessons on Cross-Examination and Life from Great Chicago Trial Lawyers features fifty chapters, by fifty trial attorneys, including prosecutors and defense attorneys, personal injury lawyers and corporate lawyers. The chapters are short and quick to read (but that doesn't mean they lack substance), so this is a book you can dabble in as well as read straight through.

I think a lot of the stories would be very helpful to aspiring -- or even experienced -- trial lawyers. Many of them are also interesting to anyone who likes a good story.

There's humor too.

I witnessed two legendary defense lawyers get scorched by taking a chance in cross examining Outfit enforcer Jimmy LaValley, a street-hardened thug who feared nothing in life. At least, he feared nothing until Matt Lydon explained to him the risks of being sentenced by a certain judge some considered rather unpredictable. He flipped and testified for the government in a half-dozen major organized crime cases.

In one, LaValley was cross-examined by the famously flamboyant (and now deceased) Julius Lucius Echeles, who was defending a former LaValley protégé name Nick Gio in an arson-for-hire case. Echeles' defense of the young Gio was that he had lost his father as a teenager, that he had come under LaValley's spell, and that LaValley had dragged him unwillingly into a life of crime.

Echeles was on a roll, getting LaValley to admit that Gio lost his father at a young age, that he met LaValley shortly afterward, and that Gio looked up to LaValley, when he asked the fateful question:

Q. Isn't it true that this young man came to you for guidance in his life?

A. I think is exact words were, "I want to be in the mob. Can you help me?"

Chris Gair, p. 107.

Every trial lawyer "borrows" from other trial lawyers -- whether it is stories we tell in final argument, approaches we use in cross-examination, or the way we may stand in the courtroom.

-- Steven F. Molo, p. 244

Your Witness gives you a host of trial lawyers to borrow from, as they share a maxim here, a turn of phrase there, a bit of caution, a funny story, an embarrassing mistake.

It will be available in the library soon (it hasn't been cataloged yet), in our Good Reads section.