...Performance Review To: Public Defender From: Assistant Public Defender Date: November 23, 2010 ------------------------------------------------- Re: Personal Performance Review, August 2009 to present Congratulations on your recent landslide election win. I enjoyed working for Mr. Job’s office and I look forward to serving you as the newly elected Public Defender. Since leaving the State Attorney’s Office to further my career as a defense attorney, I zealously advocated for every one of my clients at every stage of representation. As you move forward, you will need attorneys to fill key positions in your organization. I will discuss in detail my key accomplishments that make me a perfect candidate for one of these positions. Trials Since starting at the Public Defender’s office in August I have focused on trials. In a little over three months I conducted seven jury trials. As you know, this is well above average for the office. The average Assistant Public Defender in this circuit averages one trial per quarter. My trial performance is exceptional in another respect, each of these seven trials resulted in a not guilty jury verdict. I obtained diverse trial experience as the charges at each trial were different. I defended against resisting arrest, fraud and theft, driving crimes, as well as violent crimes. The defenses presented at trial were also varied, from an alibi defense, to an identification defense and to just pulling a rabbit out of the hat....
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...court would appoint you one? It is the law that you have to be represented by a lawyer during the time of your trial unless you sign a waiver to not have a lawyer at all. People are represented in court by two kinds of lawyers, court-appointed lawyers and public defenders, which mean "hired lawyers" (Green, 2001). People that have higher income can hire their own lawyers. The lower and middle-income people are mainly the ones who rely on court appointed lawyers. These people don't have the money to hire a lawyer. Court appointed lawyers are not working in your best interest for many reasons. Salary is one reason why court appointed lawyers don't go up and beyond their call of duty for their clients. Studies show on an average, people will be sentenced harder or longer if he/she is represented by a court-appointed lawyer rather than a public defender (Green, 2001). Court-appointed lawyers are paid by the state on a case-by-case basis. Court appointed counsel's paycheck varies by offense. The defense counsel will typically only be paid 112.00 to 326.00 for normal lower class cases. Felony punishment by more than twenty years in prison can give up to 1,196.00 for the court appointed lawyer (Green, 2001). Public defenders or "hired lawyers" are salaried state employees. If you hire a lawyer...
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...The case being presented today was State of New Jersey v. David Connor. This case is being presented in the Superior Courts of New Jersey at 50 West Market Street floor 10 Room 1004, Newark, NJ. The observation took place July 1, 2008 from 9AM until 3:30PM. The charges against the defendant David Connor are first-degree murder, second-degree aggravated assault, second-degree disturbing/moving human body, third degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and third degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. David Connor has a co-defendant by the name of Tareek Gilliam. The judge presiding over the case is the Honorable Joseph Cassini. Romesh Sukhdeo is the assistant prosecutor from the Essex County Prosecutors Office and John McMahon is the public defender representing the defendant. Honorable Joseph Cassini began the morning addressing a motion to dismiss the indictment submitted by the public defender McMahon on the grounds that the prosecutor answered questions for the jury and the actions of the assistant prosecutor were inappropriate. The motion also stated that the assistant prosecutor became the witness. The judge also reviewed the proceedings that were mentioned in the motion to dismiss the indictment in which the prosecutor actually was answering questions the jury members had asked. Honorable Joseph Cassini sighted numerous cases including State v Bennett, A-2157-04T5 where the prosecutor misstatements and improper comments constitutes misconduct...
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...Activity Description: Courtroom Observation The case being presented today was State of New Jersey v. David Connor. This case is being presented in the Superior Courts of New Jersey at 50 West Market Street floor 10 Room 1004, Newark, NJ. The observation took place July 1, 2008 from 9AM until 3:30PM. The charges against the defendant David Connor are first-degree murder, second-degree aggravated assault, second-degree disturbing/moving human body, third degree unlawful possession of a weapon, and third degree possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. David Connor has a co-defendant by the name of Tareek Gilliam. The judge presiding over the case is the Honorable Joseph Cassini. Romesh Sukhdeo is the assistant prosecutor from the Essex County Prosecutors Office and John McMahon is the public defender representing the defendant. Honorable Joseph Cassini began the morning addressing a motion to dismiss the indictment submitted by the public defender McMahon on the grounds that the prosecutor answered questions for the jury and the actions of the assistant prosecutor were inappropriate. The motion also stated that the assistant prosecutor became the witness. The judge also reviewed the proceedings that were mentioned in the motion to dismiss the indictment in which the prosecutor actually was answering questions the jury members had asked. Honorable Joseph Cassini sighted numerous cases including State v Bennett, A-2157-04T5 where the prosecutor misstatements...
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...The Alamo The 300-year-old Mission San Antonio de Valero was the site of a pinnacle battle during the Texas Revolution in March of 1836. Here, 189 Texas defenders held off Mexican General Santa Anna's 4,000 soldiers for thirteen days. Mission San Antonio de Valero (the Alamo) was established in 1718 as the city's first mission. On the east side of Alamo Plaza is the famous spot in Texas where 189 defenders fell on March 6, 1836, after repeated attacks by Mexican General Santa Anna's army which sealed it in lexicon of U.S. history. More than 2.5 million people a year visit the 4.2 acre complex known worldwide as "The Alamo." Most come to see theold mission where a small band of Texans held out for thirteen days against the Centralist army of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Although the Alamo fell in the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, the death of the Alamo Defenders has come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of Liberty. The memories of James Bowie, David Crockett, and William B. Travis are as powerful today as when the Texan Army under Sam Houston shouted "Remember the Alamo!" as it routed Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto on April 21, 1836. The Alamo has been managed by the Daughters of the Republic of Texas since 1905. Located on Alamo Plaza in downtown San Antonio, Texas, the Alamo represents nearly 300 years of history. Three buildings - the Shrine, Long Barrack Museum and Gift Museum - house exhibits on the Texas Revolution and Texas History...
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...time is ill represented yet all procedures are justly followed to the letter. It is not explained at what point the investigation of the four witness’s took place. As customary in reality when a crime is discovered an APB or all-points bulletin was cast. However, in accordance to chapter 4 of our text both defendants, Billy Gambini played by Ralph Macchio and his friend Stan Rothenstein played by Mitchell Whitfield, were pulled over due to reasonable suspicion. In this case reasonable suspicion was that two males were traveling in the direction given by witness statements in a similar colored, similar body style vehicle. Though both cast members resembled witness’s descriptions they openly admitted being at the scene of the crime after observations was made by the patrolman of groceries in the back seat. Once detained both Mr. Gambini and Rothenstein unknowingly yet comically give authorities clear and...
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...the United States Supreme Court and its justices. It wasn’t until 1912, that the district courts became exercised and became the new federal trial courts replacing the circuit courts as original jurisdiction. Circuit courts became known as federal court of appeals. They no longer have the right to try a case first, which is now the district courts role in the judicial system. With 13 circuit courts and 93 federal judicial districts the two courts make up most of the judicial system in our country. That’s why it is imperative that we know the differences and the similarities between each court. After observing both courts for about 5 or so hours, I really came to understanding how both worked. When you do field research such as court observation, there are so many different factors that come into play when you are observing. Some of the things that you might be observing is the overall atmosphere of the court room, the judge, other court room actors, cases or proceedings, defendants, and legal issues. What I chose to mainly observe was the...
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...to delve into the issue of high-stakes testing, I purposefully set out to find its defenders. Critical thinking is important to me and part of the process of thinking critically is to view a variety of perspectives on an issue in order to obtain an informed understanding and from that, an opinion. As an experienced educator, I have participated in standardized testing in a variety of ways. I have administered and graded tests in both Mathematics and Language Arts. I believe that currently in Nova Scotia we don’t have the type of high-stakes testing they have in the USA and other parts of the world. Our students do not need to achieve a certain level of achievement on the standardized tests they take in order to grade and teachers are not fired or have their salaries docked when students fail to achieve the benchmarks. Still, the provincial tests our students write do have a degree of importance in that the results are published for media and public consumption (which directly affects the opinion people form of the health of our education system) and certain resources are channeled into schools with the weakest performance. In addition, the way students view themselves and their abilities are affected by their participation in writing these assessments. So, it was with interest that I began Gregory Cizek’s article in an attempt to understand the position of high-stakes testing’s defenders. Dr. Cizek is a professor of Educational Measurement and Evaluation at the University...
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...services. They are used to store vital information, from medical records to business plans to criminal records. Although we trust them, they are vulnerable—to the effects of poor design and insufficient quality control, to accident, and perhaps more alarmingly, to deliberate attack. The modern thief can steal more with a computer than with a gun. Tomorrow’s terrorist may be able to do more damage with a keyboard than with a bomb. When these words were written, the first web browsers were still on the drawing board and the Internet was a place for high-tech aficionados. How far we have come! Today, our dependence on inter-networked computing systems means that virtually every walk of American life—whether personal or commercial, public or private, civilian or military—is intermediated by computer systems. But virtually none of these systems are trustworthy; all are subject to attack; in fact, many are actively under attack today. It is 2009 and we very much remain a nation at risk. Moreover, we are embarking on a trajectory that will only put us further at risk as we revamp energy distribution, revitalize our transportation systems, and computerize our health care records. We have no basis to place our trust in such systems. We must learn to engineer our inter-networked systems and defend them, appreciating that they will constitute a new battlefront as they are deployed. Today’s landscape By virtually any...
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...reduce police brutality cases as officers dealing with suspects that easily comply will have absolutely no reason to injure or even shoot them. Also witnesses can help, if they see a confrontation with an officer and a suspect they could use their smart phone to record it, therefore putting pressure on the officer to remain calm and professional and to not do anything too rash. Knowing that any misstep on the officers behalf would be posted on social media and possibly gain traction in a news cycle. In some cases verbally reminding a police officer to not shoot an individual may help to de-escalate the situation, witnesses should do everything in their power to ensure the officer abides by police regulation. Some officers may find this observation and perceived intrusion into their working life to be a hindrance, or an added...
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...What Works with Juvenile Offenders Juvenile Offenders are categorized differently than their adult counterparts for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is that as an offender who is not yet an adult, they are still considered a protected class due to their age and the concern of disrupting their rights to council and the rights of their parents to help dictate the events in their lives. Over the past few decades there have been several studies completed correlating the quantitative analysis in primary research studies with success rates of juvenile offender treatment. Because of the repeated success of certain treatments over others, these studies have lead to an agreement on what programs and intervention strategies work and which have little to no repeated success. By analyzing these treatment strategies as they have been portrayed in academic literature and through the primary research that has been completed, a summary analysis of what plans work when dealing with juvenile offenders will be devised and put forth as the best option for treatment. The first aspect to analyze when dealing with implementing a new strategy for juvenile offender reformation and treatment plans is the idea of quality of the plan versus quantity of sessions required with all individuals in correctional institutions across the United States. In the past two decades, the numbers of individuals within the correctional systems across the United States has skyrocketed. In 2004, the jump in population...
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...On Friday, April, 4, 2014, I observed the Vanderburgh County Superior Court to observe different family law cases. The cases I heard involved contempt of court for failing to pay child support, failure to appear for a court appointed drug test, birth certificate affidavit, request for contest hearing time, and an issue of paternity case. Magistrate Judge Sheila M. Corcoran was presiding over the family court hearings. When entering the courthouse, I was greeted by security and advised to remove any cell phones, and/or, any other items that would trigger a metal detector. After this, I proceeded straight to look for the family courtroom. After roaming around mindlessly for a couple minutes, I decided to ask the courthouse officer monitoring the entrance with the metal detector to point me in the direction of the family courtroom. With no hesitation, she pointed me toward two big wooden doors. After entering the courtroom, I found a seat immediately. The waiting area was crowded. The persons awaiting their scheduled hearing time were dressed in mostly jeans. Each party, along with their attorney, arrive no later than 30 minutes prior to their scheduled hearing times. I imagined the courtroom would be bigger after visiting the Hamilton County court last year. To my surprise, this court room was much smaller. The judge was, of course, seated at the front of the courtroom, and to her right was the court reporter. I could not see the reporter’s face from where I was seated because...
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...THE PROTOCOL ON THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND PEACE BUILDING IN AFRICA Protocol refers to an international agreement that adds to an existing international instrument. Ratification refers to a formal action under international law that makes a state a party to particular treaty and indicates a state’s consent to be bound by the treaty The African union protocol is an African law made by Africans for Africans and it does among other things call for: * An end to all forms of violence against women in all its forms and in all situations * It promotes the use of corrective measures (Affirmative action) for women’s equal participation and representation. In elected and appointive offices * It clearly provides for the reproductive health rights of women and girls * It provides for remedies for any woman whose rights and freedoms are violated and denied * It also entitles her to seek and obtain redress through accessible government and non governmental agencies mechanisms and services Defending women’s human rights is often seen by state authorities, and even by communities, as a challenge to culture, tradition and a way of life. Through their work, many directly or indirectly challenge social stereotypes regarding the proper role and status of women. As a result, women activists not only face repression by governments, but also by their families and other community members. Ongoing armed conflicts on the continent place women at even further risk of violence...
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...Racial Disparity in Sentencing Racial disparity in sentencing in the criminal justice system is a problematic issue. Individuals often believe that racial disparity in sentencing does not exist; however, substantial proof in the criminal justice system proves otherwise. According to statistics of Marc Mauer, “unprecedented rise in the populations of prisons over the past three decades is a six fold increase, resulting in the incarceration of nearly two million Americans.” The breakdown of statistics is as follows: “One in every eight African-American male groups between 25-34 year old is a result of incarceration and 32% of African-American males born to society can expect to spend a term in a federal or state prison if the current racial disparity continues” (Mauer, 2004, p. 79). Four reasons of Racial Disparity The four reasons for the flourishing continuance of racial disparity in the criminal justice sentencing process are ineffective assistance of procedural bars, and council, jury selection and venue, prosecutorial discretion, and juror racism (Tabak, 1999, p. 6). Research documenting states like New York and California prosecutions have board spectrums concerning discretion seeking capital punishment; however, these four reasons apply to cases, which capital punishment is sought. “Capital punishment can be sought for intentional murders which individual may commit during the course of a felony and the intent to commit murder can be formed instantaneously before the...
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...Introduction L on Fuller made an impressive observation in his response to HLA Hart’s Holmes Lecture . His observation was that “Throughout his discussion Professor Hart seems to assume the only difference between Nazi law and, say, English Law is that the Nazis used their laws to achieve ends that are odious to an Englishman.” Though Hart and Fuller completely agreed about the odiousness of the ends that the Nazis pursued and the disgusting means through which they pursued them: racial discrimination, war crimes, genocide and torture. However, Fuller thought that there were important aspects of misrule by the Nazis that needed special attention by jurists and legal philosophers. He said that continuous violations of principles of legality...
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