{"id":2849,"date":"2011-05-25T08:22:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-25T16:22:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/?p=2849"},"modified":"2014-05-14T08:55:46","modified_gmt":"2014-05-14T16:55:46","slug":"2011-justice-summit-an-ode-to-criminal-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2849\/2011-justice-summit-an-ode-to-criminal-defense\/","title":{"rendered":"2011 Justice Summit: An Ode to Criminal Defense"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

The 2011 Justice Summit held at the Civic Center Library, May 18, and sponsored by Public Defender Jeff Adachi (left) included a general panel discussion on the criminal justice system.\u00a0 Panelists from left to right: Authors John Osborne, Paulette Frankl, Defense Attorney Tony Serra and Author Sheldon Siegel.\u00a0 Photos by Luke Thomas.<\/p><\/div>\n

The 2011 Public Defender\u2019s Justice Summit provided plenty of inspiration for those dedicating their lives to this kind of work and those hoping to do so.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Savannah Blackwell<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

May 25, 2011<\/p>\n

In his opening remarks at his annual summit on criminal justice on May 18, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi assured the audience that this year\u2019s conference was to be \u201cby far, the most exciting\u201d of the seven he has organized and hosted.<\/p>\n

The first panel looked promising enough.\u00a0 It included John Osborne, author of The Paper Chase<\/em>, a favorite of first-year law students for decades and a wry critique of the traditional approach to legal education; Paulette Frankl, a courtroom sketch artist who wrote 2010\u2019s Lust for Justice<\/em>, which is about legendary defense attorney Tony Serra; Tony Serra; the fiery, counter-culture defense attorney considered to be among the very best in the nation; Mary McDonagh Murphy (via Skype), who wrote Scout, Atticus and Boo<\/em>, a book about the story behind the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em>; and Sheldon Siegel, a part-time corporate attorney who has penned a series of popular mystery novels featuring a team of fictional San Francisco defense attorneys\u00a0 — the most recent of which is Perfect Alibi<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Osborne, Frankl, Serra, McDonagh Murphy, and Sheldon were asked to focus on \u201cthe meaning of justice.\u201d\u00a0 And at about the mid-point in the discussion, a little theater took place in the Koret Auditorium of the San Francisco Main Library which made it evident that this, indeed, would be no dull, dry affair<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when Serra pounced on Osborne, so to speak.<\/p>\n

A remark from the amiable Osborne that the law \u201cwork[s] really well\u201d as practiced on Wall Street, set off Serra, the defender of the likes of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the Black Panthers, and Earth First!<\/p>\n

Since \u201cnothing meaningful ever comes from a seated attorney,\u201d Serra sprang to his feet, turned toward Osborne and thundered, \u201cWall Street lawyers are serving the capitalistic corporations that have taken our democracy hostage.\u00a0 They\u2019re shifting money from one capitalistic entity to another in a manifestation of the malfunction of the entire system!\u201d<\/p>\n

Serra long ago took a vow of poverty.<\/p>\n

Osborne did not flinch at the torrent of words coming from the man nicknamed, \u201cThe Semantic Samarai.\u201d\u00a0 He coolly quipped in an aside to the audience, \u201cWhy do I feel like you are with him<\/em>?\u201d and then reiterated his point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWall Street lawyers do great law,” Osborne said. ” It\u2019s the best practice of law in the country, and if you don\u2019t believe that, you don\u2019t know what you\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Serra fired back: \u201cI know<\/em> that death penalty appellate lawyers do the best practice of law in the country.\u00a0 Their objective is valid<\/em>, and their industry matches your<\/em> industry\u2019s competency!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Defense Attorney Tony Serra.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Author and attorney John Osborne.<\/p><\/div>\n

Besides offering sheer entertainment value, that moment crystallized a sub-textual theme than ran throughout the entire day.\u00a0 That theme might be phrased as, \u201cDefending the accused is a true and noble cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps this is particularly so when the accused lives in poverty.<\/p>\n

Despite depiction of the typical defense attorney as a sleazy, lazy twister of truth and obstruction to justice on television shows such as \u201cLaw & Order,\u201d many choose to put their legal skills to use as advocates for those charged with crimes for some pretty high-minded reasons. Some feel a need to fight to make sure the U.S. Constitution still means something at a time when the country\u2019s highest court has been chipping away at fundamental rights such as the protection against illegal search and seizure. Others see defending the indigent as a particularly worthwhile mission during a period of history when social welfare programs have been gutted, the War on Drugs has continued unabated, and prisons across the country have been jammed with the penniless and drug-addicted.<\/p>\n

But thanks to the decimation of government funding, an opening in any of the public defender offices across the state has become a rarity. This grim reality has caused Adachi concern. He says he\u2019s worried the opportunity to train a new generation of public defenders will be lost. Many public defender offices have gone through at least one round of cuts, if not several. In many more, the lead defenders are unsure whether they will be able to fill existing and future vacancies. Like all San Francisco agencies, Adachi\u2019s office is facing budget reductions of 10 to 20 percent. In Fresno County, the public defenders even have to fend off recurring moves at the local board of supervisors to get rid of their department altogether.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, public defenders who do have jobs find themselves contending with higher and higher caseloads. In a single morning in Fresno, for example, one public defender handling misdemeanors had to deal with more than 100 client-matters scheduled before the court. More than 50 in one morning is not unusual. According to the website for the public defender\u2019s office in San Francisco, the 93 attorneys who work in the office represent 23,000 people annually<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a difficult and exhausting job, but one that is crucial to the administration of justice.<\/p>\n

Even though that was not the stated purpose, Adachi\u2019s summit brought that to light.<\/p>\n

Other parts of the summit that hit indirectly on the \u201cdefense is a noble cause\u201d theme included:<\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 San Francisco defense attorney Stuart Hanlon pointing to the firmly held belief among some police officers that \u201cthe ends justify the means\u201d as the aspect of departmental culture than leads to cops abusing the power and privilege of the job.<\/p>\n

Hanlon is best known for defending \u201cGeronimo\u201d Pratt, a former Black Panther leader who spent nearly 30 years in prison before it was revealed that the prosecution failed to turn over key evidence pointing to Pratt\u2019s innocence. Hanlon was one of the speakers on the second panel, which was focused on police misconduct. The others were newly minted San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr; former Tiberon police chief Greg Herley; San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Anne Irwin; and John Burris, the Bay Area\u2019s go-to lawyer for those who have suffered civil rights abuses at the hands of police.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Defense Attorney Stuart Hanlon.<\/p><\/div>\n

From cops running brothels and stealing drugs to officers busting into SRO hotel rooms and conducting warrantless searches, the number of Bay Area news headlines given over to \u201ccops gone wild\u201d-type scandals over the past six months seems to have reached \u201can epidemic,\u201d as retired San Francisco Superior Court judge Lee Baxter put it. Baxter deftly monitored the panel on police misconduct.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Retired San Francisco Superior Court judge Lee Baxter.<\/p><\/div>\n

(For a detailed account of the police misconduct panel discussion, see San Francisco Bay Guardian reporter Sarah Phelan\u2019s May 19 story, \u201cPerception of Lost Integrity Costs Police<\/a>.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 San Francisco Deputy Public Defender Anne Irwin talking about how public defenders have \u201cthe unique and natural role as [the] messenger\u201d bearing news of how commonly instances of police misconduct actually occur.\u00a0 \u201cWe have more interaction with victims of police misconduct than anyone else in government,\u201d she said.\u00a0 \u201cWe get into the intimate details of lives in the course of representing them and developing a relationship of mutual trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Public Defender Anne Irwin.<\/p><\/div>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John Thompson, a man who spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana and went through \u201cdeath watches\u201d seven times before a jury exonerated him, describing what his life was like during that time.<\/p>\n

Thompson founded \u201cResurrection After Exoneration,\u201d an organization dedicated to helping former death row inmates re-enter society. \u00a0A speaker on the death penalty panel, Thompson was joined by District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n, Jeanne Woodford, a former warden at San Quentin Prison who now advocates for abolishing the death penalty and recently was profiled by the San Francisco Chronicle<\/a>, and Natasha Minsker, the death penalty policy director for the Northern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n

\"\"

John T. Thompson spent 14 years on death row in Louisiana\u2019s notorious Angola prison before being exonerated of his 1985 conviction for murder.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

Former San Quentin Warden Jeanne Woodford.<\/p><\/div>\n

(For an account of the death penalty discussion, see the May 18 Bay City News article, \u201cDA Gasc\u00f3n Speaks For, Former San Quentin Warden Against, the Death Penalty<\/a>.\u201d)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matt Gonzalez, using the skills he honed conducting direct and cross examinations as a public defender, persistently try to pin Gasc\u00f3n down on his nebulous position on the death penalty.\u00a0 Gasc\u00f3n has said that while he is \u201cnot categorically opposed to the death penalty” and would consider it appropriate in some cases, he \u201cpersonally does not believe the death penalty is a good tool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Public Defender Chief Attorney Matt Gonzalez.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\"

San Fracnisco District Attorney George Gasc\u00f3n.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gonzalez, a former president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, recently re-joined the public defender\u2019s office as Chief Attorney. When Gonzalez asked Gasc\u00f3n if he was \u201ca pro-death penalty district attorney,\u201d Gasc\u00f3n replied, \u201cno.\u201d However, Gasc\u00f3n said, \u201cAs chief prosecutor he [thought] it [was] inappropriate to say that [he] categorically would not support a law on the books.\u201d Then he listed a number of problems associated with the death penalty, such as the disturbing fact that people of color receive the sentence more often than whites.<\/p>\n

Gonzalez followed up with, \u201cWould you support efforts statewide to get rid of the death penalty?\u201d Gasc\u00f3n answered, \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m saying.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ACLU\u2019s Minsker said she did not know of any district attorneys [other than former San Francisco District Attorneys Terence Hallinan and Kamala Harris] in the state who publicly have taken the position never to do death penalty prosecutions, but was aware of a number who have \u201cquietly decid[ed] not to pursue the death penalty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

ACLU Attorney Natasha Minsker.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gonzalez remarked, \u201cI think our district attorney fits that description.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the summit, Adachi pointed out that Thompson was exonerated because a prosecutor came forward and revealed that the district attorney in the former death row inmate\u2019s case had intentionally withheld evidence showing Thompson was innocent.<\/p>\n

Said Adachi, \u201cThere are heroes everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Public Defender Jeff Adachi and John T. Thompson.<\/p><\/div>\n

A newspaper reporter for 14 years prior to attending U.C. Berkeley School of Law, Savannah Blackwell recently completed a post-graduate fellowship in the misdemeanor unit of the Office of the Public Defender, San Francisco.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his opening remarks at his annual summit on criminal justice on May 18, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi assured the audience that this year\u2019s conference was to be \u201cby far, the most exciting\u201d of the seven he has organized and hosted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":5826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n2011 Justice Summit: An Ode to Criminal Defense - Fog City Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fogcityjournal.com\/wordpress\/2849\/2011-justice-summit-an-ode-to-criminal-defense\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2011 Justice Summit: An Ode to Criminal Defense - 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