Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t

“THE PROSECUTOR has more control over life, liberty and reputation than any other person in America. His discretion is tremendous. He can have citizens investigated, and, if he is that kind of person, he can have this done to the tune of public statements and veiled or unveiled intimations.” ⇒

After voting in the Public Defender Blog Awards I realized there were a great many PD blogs I’m not reading regularly enough. If you’re in the same boat, may I suggest you download the PD Blog Guide Subscription List. The list is an OPML file of all the RSS feeds in the PD blog guide (and a few other sites, like a couple of prosecutor blogs that are occasionally interesting). Most feed readers (including Bloglines) will allow you to import a list of subscriptions in OPML format. Simply download the file, open your preferred feed reader, and find the “import” command. The RSS feeds will be imported into your feed reader, and the next time you refresh your subscriptions you’ll have all the most recent updates from every blog in the guide.

Happy reading!

Note: If you have no clue what I’m talking about with feeds, RSS, OPML, subscriptions, and feed readers, let me know and I’ll be happy to help you if I can.

[tags]blogging, meta[/tags]

Public Defender Stuff is currently sponsoring the first ever Public Defender Blogger Awards. Head over to vote for your favorite PD blog/blogger. I just spent far too much time going through each of the categories and casting my votes—it’s amazing what you can find in those lists. The choices can be tough b/c there’s so many excellent options. I actually couldn’t bring myself to vote in the personality/congeniality/role model categories. It’s just too hard.

One editorial note: “Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t” ended up with a nomination in the category of “Best Title of a Blog That Has Nothing To Do With The Job.” I’d only point out that the title of this blog was, in fact, intended to reflect something (a good deal, I thought) about the job. See “About the name” on the bottom of this page. I guess if it needs an explanation, it just doesn’t work… [tags]blogging, meta[/tags]

“Sheriff Jerome Kramer said the incident was a result of overcrowding.” ⇒

“The judge calls it a “Holbrook holiday,” but for 23 people convicted in his court, it means spending Christmas in jail.” More here. ⇒

“When I was raiding houses and destroying families, my conscience was telling me it was wrong, but my need for power, fame and peer acceptance overshadowed my good conscience.”

“‘Tis the season for strange crimes by even stranger people, with police blotters expanding faster than a 6-year-old’s wish list of gifts.” ⇒

“U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion (18 billion pounds) worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country’s largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday.” ⇒

The holidays can be stressful for everyone, but defenders of the accused feel a special pressure if any of their clients are in jail and have some legitimate hope of getting out sometime relatively soon. Another few days or an extra week in the clink is never a good thing, but normally it’s not a huge deal for most clients so long as they know the end is near. However, when those “few more days” mean missing xmas with the family, another few days can seem impossible to take.

I’ve been working all week to make possible the release of a client w/two young girls and a wife, all of whom miss him very much. The chances are high that he’ll be able to get out soon, but the chances that all that’s required for his release could happen in the next two days are… well… less good.

I guess I better get back to work… [tags]jail, prisoners, holidays[/tags]

“We’re finding ways to use technology to create what is a permanent deprivation of liberty. . . It raises some very important issues about what the state may do to an essentially free person.” ⇒