Google found this for Idaho. I downloaded the list and confirmed Anne Taylor is approved as Lead or co-counsel for Capital trials. She’s not approved for post conviction appeals.
https://pdc.idaho.gov/capital-counsel-qualifications-and-roster/
And this gives you a heads-up that it is probably going to be charged as a death penalty case. I’ll be very surprised if it’s not.
In my experience, post-conviction appeals are their own special animal. Attorneys at the appeals level handle appeals exclusively.
I haven’t been a new law school grad for several decades, but I would be quite surprised if the competition for PD jobs weren’t quite competitive, if only because there is such a surfeit of lawyers.
I’ve got a buddy who recently retired as a PD. Next time I see him I’ll ask about there caliber of their new hires.
My neighbor is a public defender. I could ask her next time I see her.
She always seems to be handling complex, serious cases (appealing murder convictions, say), not handling DWIs. There may be levels of experience.
Apparently attorneys are expected to take some cases pro bono, so one could get an expensive attaorney acting as a public defender.
Sux to be him. I don’t like the death penalty but I have no sympathy for those stuck behind bars, either.
My feelings exactly.
I’m not a supporter of the death penalty. I believe he received the right punishment.
It’s right there in the article:
Before I retired from government work, one of my jobs had me visiting the Yavapai County Public Defender’s office on a monthly basis. Not only did they have shelves full of law books, they had racks of clothes and shoes to be sure that their clients could look presentable in court. One of the legal secretaries gave great haircuts.
Those folks were motivated! They were also the sort of people who did crossword puzzles in ink.
I am so grateful for them. They are the firewall between us and abuses of legal process. Something that’s becoming more of a concern on a daily basis. There are an awful lot of people in this country who would just as soon skip the whole “entitled to a legal defense” part of the proceedings.
Indeed. Everyone is entitled to competent legal defense, unless someone is defending themselves of course.
My mother lives in Boise and has been keeping up with this story. So far, she hasn’t told me anything I haven’t learned through the news in Arizona. I expect the cops are still keeping things as quiet as they can.
I guess I was thinking that the pay wasn’t too great for public defenders, compared to what they could make in private practice. Again, I’m referring to starting level.
The defense almost got blind sided. Glad the judge protected the crime scene. The defense needs to hire experts and independently look at evidence.
I think the headline is incorrect. The article says the defense hired the crime scene reconstruction expert.
Does anyone know why the two survivors were so quickly discounted as possible suspects?
That was certainly true in my day. My first public defender salary was $17,500 per year. (it improved over time, but not dramatically) Nonetheless, it was hard to get a job there, you had to be pretty good. I had a prior summer internship with a different public defender and a year doing criminal law clinics in law school. The lawyers in our office were professional and dedicated. We had social workers and investigators on staff, and yes, clothes for our clients to wear to court.
The private defense bar varied widely, from top notch to incompetent. That’s probably still true today.
The advice I give to law students is that if they’re interested in a litigation career, they should get a job with the Crown office or the Legal Aid office, because that’s where the most litigation happens. After getting a lot of experience, and if they enjoy litigation, they might consider transitioning to civil lit.
“… Why were they eliminated as suspects?..”
This likely tells us there is significant evidence or testimony not revealed to the public yet. This was a loud house party with possibly dozens of associated guests and residents leaving DNA and other traces. That there is only one suspect of note with evidence that is no more incriminating than any other person in the area means they aren’t merely spinning a roulette wheel for a prime suspect.
Just been revealed that the suspect’s DNA was on an empty knife sheath left at the scene. That’s more substantial than DNA simply being found in the house. Gift link below
From the article:
Well, that’s just a wee bit more substantial than what we (the public) knew before.
I wonder how the defense will explain the knife sheaf? It was something distinctive left at the scene that identified the perpetrators in the Leopold-Loeb case, mentioned earlier in the thread.
From Wikipedia: