Quitting Criminal Law
December 7, 2008
QUITTING CRIMINAL LAW
After 29 years I’ve taken in the criminal law shingle. 25 years of defense work, four as a prosecutor (when I took that step I never did figure if it was a white horse or a black horse that I’d jumped onto!). The change was occasioned primarily by the big increase in the number of Social Security l cases I’m currently involved in, but also because there is now a Federal Public Defender’s Office serving the Court where I did many appointed cases.
Lord knows how many cases I was involved in over the years, but just offhand only three outright acquittals as a defense lawyer come to mind (I hope that there were more, but these three I remember). In one, a felony charge of attempting to purchase a firearm after being convicted of a felony, I was able to convince the Court that my retained client was so dense that he didn’t comprehend that a cocaine charge in New Jersey was a felony; in another, a court-appointed drug distribution case, I had been to the scene of the alleged offense, and pointed out to an unhappy Court and prosecutor that it was impossible for an officer, despite his testimony, to have kept his informant under surveillance during the intervals before and after the buy; the third, and oddest case, involved road rage before the term had been invented. My retained client had seen a fellow cut him off at an intersection, adding insult to injury by making an obscene gesture. My guy followed the fellow to a shopping mall parking lot, and approached the car on foot only to hear the doors locking and see the window come halfway down, and a furled umbrella poked out and brandished in his direction. My client grabbed the umbrella, then the arm, then pulled the man halfway out the window for a couple of good dope slaps, and was arrested for assault and battery! The only argument that I could make on closing was that a person ought to pay some attention to who they make obscene gestures towards. The law aside, my man was acquitted. I think that the Judge went back to his Navy days and acted as though he was presiding at a Captain’s Mast rather than in the District Court!
More importantly, I can look back and know that I did a good job for most of the rest of my criminal clients, minimizing the damage that they suffered by getting felonies reduced to misdemeanors or taken under advisement for subsequent dismissal. I know that just about all of my guys served less jail time because of my efforts, and feel that other factors, such as their sociopathic personalities or just plain old guilt comparable with homemade sin, interfered with my efforts on behalf of the others.
I’m proud of the work that I did as a criminal lawyer, but at age 56 I’m glad to be moving on to other challenges. That, and pleased to have my calendar set so that I can take the time to prepare my disability cases without the interruption of having to go and wait for docket call!
