Believe it or not, there is a difference between an attorney and a lawyer. An attorney is a lawyer but a lawyer is not necessarily an attorney. Confused? Let me clear that up for you.

You don't want an unskilled lawyer defending you

A lawyer is simply a person trained in the law and may or may not provide legal guidance to a client. So anyone who has attended law school in the U.S. can consider himself or herself a lawyer. That’s not who you want defending your case especially if you’re facing off with the federal government!

Until a lawyer passes the bar exam in the jurisdiction in which they intend to practice, their methods are limited. For example, a policy advisor or consultant to the government, who attended law school, is technically a lawyer and may off their skills but must not cross the fine line into providing legal representation.

Attorney defined

An attorney is also a lawyer, has attended law school, passed a bar examination and has been admitted to practice law. The relationship an attorney has with a client goes beyond merely providing factual law but they have the skill to delve into defense strategy. This skill can determine if you’re going to jail for years or having your sentence shaved down to a few months. This is who you want defending you!

You should feel good about your choice of attorney

Consider a Specialist

Attorneys specialize in certain areas. So-called “general practitioners” may not know that much about the particular area of your concern. For example, of the almost one million lawyers in America today, probably fewer than 50,000 possess sufficient training and experience in small business law to be of any real help to an entrepreneur. That should be of great concern to a person facing federal or state charges.

I’ve heard of cases where the client paid out the nose for services to an attorney who simply was in over their heads. The client got the full penalty and the attorney felt terrible about it. We do have feelings even if that’s hard to believe. Smart attorneys never take on cases that are out of their depths.

It can pay to work with an attorney who already knows the field such as:
immigration, drug violations, white-collar crimes (internet, fraud), money laundering, or felony DUI. That way you can take advantage of the fact that the attorney is already far up the learning curve. Sometimes specialists charge a little more, but if their specialized strategy and relationships to court officials and prosecutors is truly valuable, it can be money well spent. It can mean the difference in spending years in jail or only a few months.

Author and legal scholar Michell Alexander

Jim Crow defined

The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy, with a supposedly “separate but equal” status for black Americans.

The separation led to unfair and inferior accommodations and other services that compared to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern United States. Northern segregation was generally de facto, with patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank-lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades.

Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated.

Educational links explaining Jim Crow:

The University of Dayton

Ferris State University

“Today there are more African-Americans under correctional control — in prison or jail, on probation or parole — than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. There are millions of African-Americans now cycling in and out of prisons and jails or under correctional control. In major American cities today, more than half of working-age African-American men are either under correctional control or branded felons and are thus subject to legalized discrimination for the rest of their lives.” — Michelle Alexander as interviewed by NPR

Appearing on NPR’s Fresh Air, Alexander spoke about how President Reagan’s war on drugs led to a mass incarceration of black males and the difficulties these felons face after serving their prison sentences. She also details her own experiences working as the director of the Racial Justice Program at the American Civil Liberties Union.

“He declared the drug war primarily for reasons of politics — racial politics. Numerous historians and political scientists have documented that the war on drugs was part of a grand Republican Party strategy known as the “Southern strategy” of using racially coded ‘get-tough’ appeals on issues of crime and welfare to appeal to poor and working-class whites, particularly in the South, who were resentful of, anxious about and threatened by many of the gains of African-Americans in the civil rights movement.“– Michelle Alexander on Fresh Air

Alexander says that people are swept into the criminal justice system at very early ages and typically for fairly minor, nonviolent crimes. Young black males are shuttled into prisons and branded as criminals and felons.

Upon release from prison, they are relegated to a permanent second-glass status, stripped of the very rights supposedly won in the civil rights movement such as:

“Many of the old forms of discrimination that we supposedly left behind during the Jim Crow era are suddenly legal again, once you’ve been branded a felon, ” Alexander says.

Stevens was killed in a plane crash in 2010. The Alaska senator was convicted of failing to report a gift from an oil company executive and lost his bid for re-election shortly thereafter.  A year after Steven’s death, an FBI agent offered an affidavit asserting prosecutorial misconduct. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. reacted by setting aside Steven’s conviction but not before the damage to Steven’s political career was already done.

The department has a separate inquiry that must point the way to repairing the public integrity section, which is responsible for prosecuting public officials.

Senator Ted Stevens served Alaska for over 40 years

Judge orders investigation into Justice Department procedures

Judge Sullivan presided at the trial and dismissed the senator’s conviction in 2009. He ordered an intensive investigation by an outside attorney into whether criminal contempt charges should be brought against the prosecutors. The judge cited the finding last week that the prosecution was “permeated by the systematic concealment of significant exculpatory evidence which would have independently corroborated” Mr. Stevens’s defense.

Despite those findings, no charges were recommended because, the investigation noted, Judge Sullivan did not specifically order prosecutors to turn over exculpatory evidence. This technicality raises questions of whether something more explicit may be required in evidence law.

The Stevens trial remains a tragedy that saw one of the prosecutors commit suicide. Judge Sullivan’s inquiry contributes significantly to a full airing of woeful misconduct, but the Justice Department must act forcefully to repair the damage.

Michael Morton is cleared of murder after 25 years. Credit: New York Times

What is so unusual about this particular case involving Michael Morton is that the prosecutor in his case is being investigated for withholding evidence. Morton’s lawyers filed a request for a special hearing to determine whether the prosecutor, Ken Anderson, broke state laws or ethics rules by holding back evidence that could have led to Mr. Morton’s acquittal.

“I haven’t seen anything like this, ever,” said Bennet L. Gershman, an expert on prosecutorial misconduct at Pace University in New York. “It’s an extraordinary legal event.” Mr. Anderson is a respected and noted expert on Texas criminal law and is now a district judge. Through his lawyer, Anderson strongly denied any wrongdoing in Morton’s case from some 25 years ago.

Prosecutor in Morton case is now a judge

Morton was a manager at an Austin supermarket and had no criminal history. He was charged with the beating death of his wife, Christine, in 1986. Morton said that he believed the killer must have entered their home after he left for work early in the morning.

Prosecutor Anderson convinced the jury that Mr. Morton was angry that his wife rebuffed a romantic advance the previous night on his 32nd birthday and then killed her in a murderous rage. Morton was sentenced to life in prison. In 2005, Morton requested that the court test DNA found on a blue bandana near his home shortly after his wife’s murder.

The Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley fought the request for DNA testing for six years, based on advice from now Judge Anderson, his predecessory and friend. A Texas court ordered the DNA testing in 2010. The results showed that Morton’s blood was mixed with the DNA of Mark A. Norwood. Mr. Norwood is a felon with a long criminal history who lived 12 miles from the Mortons at the time of the murder.

Mark Norwood has been charged with Mrs. Morton's murder

Norwood was arrested and charged in Mrs. Norton’s murder and also is a suspect in a similar murder from 1988. By the time the DNA testing was ordered, Morton had spent nearly 25 years in prison.

The filing by Mr. Morton’s lawyer, John Raley, and attorneys from the Innocence Project, a group based in New York that represents prisoners seeking exoneration through DNA testing, is asking for what is known as a “court of inquiry.”

Morton’s son: “Monster” killed his mother

The lawyers did not share the document with reporters but answered questions about it. They will ask the court to determine that there is probable cause to believe that Anderson withheld reports that the judge in the 1987 trial had ordered him to turn over.

The judge had demanded the documents to determine whether they might help Mr. Morton’s case. Finding nothing exculpatory in the small number of documents he was provided by the prosecutor, the judge ordered the record sealed.

In August, however, a different judge ordered the record unsealed, and Mr. Morton’s lawyers discovered that Mr. Anderson had provided only a fraction of the available evidence. Missing from the file was the transcript of a telephone conversation between a sheriff’s deputy and Mr. Morton’s mother-in-law in which she reported that her 3-year-old grandson had seen a “monster” — who was not his father — attack and kill his mother.

White-collar suspects held without bond

Judges are difficult to convince that the defendants from other countries involved in massive fraud schemes won’t flee. The government believes that many of these defendants can’t be trusted and are denying bail.

Authorities believe that defendants have access to loads of cash and international ties. They believe that if they are released on bond before trial, they’ll flee. Courts agree with this theory.

Several international suspects in Detroit have been held pending trial with no chance at bail. Three of the defendants are Medicare fraud suspects and two are charged with insurance-fraud-by-arson.

Public may be punishing financial greed

One of the defendants is a pharmacist with two children here in the U.S. He has pleaded with the court four times to be released on bond but so far, the court has denied his request.

Some experts believe that the courts are responding to the public’s feelings toward financial greed stemming from the world economic crisis. “Everyone is all about punishing the money guy at this point,” said Lisa Wayne, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Others believe that internationals accused of illegal activity are still seen through the Sept. 11 events.

What’s most alarming for criminal defense lawyers is that the presumption of innocence is being ignored. “Everybody assumes that foreigners are going to flee,” said Criminal Defense Lawyer Bill Swor, who is representing three foreign defendants in fraud cases — all denied bond. “It seems that the courts are more sensitive to that and more receptive to that argument.”

A new frontier for white-collar lawyers

They should be, countered Tom Spokaeski, assistant special agent in charge of Detroit’s Office of Inspector General, part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Spokaeski, a fraud investigator, said Medicare fraud has become rampant, costing the government billions in losses. “We’re tired of seeing the brazen manner in which people are defrauding our Medicare system,” Spokaeski said. “We need to stop this epidemic.”

With fraud on the rise nationwide ($2.3 billion in false Medicare billings), white-collar crime is being heavily pursued by law enforcement. The government is prosecuting more white-collar crimes in general.

“This is a new frontier for white-collar lawyers,” said Lisa Wayne, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “I think that you’re seeing that because judges and prosecutors are beholden to the community,” said Wayne, who said she believes the public is increasingly intolerant of financial criminals.

The philosophy, she said, is simple: “These guys need to be punished.”

U.S. Criminalized Drug Stats

The Department of Justice released new data:

o Justice Department says that drug use costs U.S. $193 billion a year
o $56 billion of that $193 is directly connected to the criminal justice system
o 7 million in the U.S. are under criminal justice protection
o 2 million behind bars in U.S. over drug-related charges

States and cities are finding that budgets are being stretched to manage drug criminalization. Between 1988 and 2009, state corrections increased from $12 billion to more than $50 billion per year.

Obama Administration has pursued unprecedented measures

Ben Tucker, deputy director for State, Local, and Tribal Affairs presided over the briefing. It seems that we’re not winning any kind of war on drugs or curing a disease. We are perpetuating drug policies that target certain ethnicities.

Efforts to Bring Change

“African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately incarcerated for drug offenses. These two groups have consistently higher proportions of inmates in state prison who are drug offenders compared to Whites – about 50 percent higher among these minorities compared to Whites,” said Tucker.

“As our nation works to recover from the greatest recession we’ve had, we must do everything we can to lessen the harm that drug offenses and drug use have on the health, safety, and economic potential of our nation and our fellow citizens.”

Gil Kerlikowske, director of National Drug Control Policy outlined unprecedented actions being pursued by the Obama Administration to break the cycle of drug use, crime, incarceration and re-arrest.

The Obama Administration’s approach to criminal justice drug policy is guided by three facts:

• Addiction is a disease that can be treated.
• People can recover from drug addiction.
• New interventions are needed to appropriately address substance abuse and drug-related crime.

“We cannot arrest our way out of our nation’s drug problem and while new strategies are being implemented there is more to do,” said Kerlikowske.

Obama Administration Actions:

• Spent $10.4 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs
• Signed the Fair Sentencing Act into law – Long overdue criminal justice reform reducing a 100-to-1 sentencing disparity between power and crack cocaine
• Implementing the Second Chance Act – Provides funding for reentry services and policies at the state and local levels
• Expansion of drug court which place non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prison

Obama Administration spending more on recovery programs

In 2010, the Department of Justice awarded $100 million to support 178 state and local reentry grants to provide a wide range of services. The department also awarded another $83 million to 118 new grantees in September.

Nationwide, housing authorities are being encouraged to lease to offenders returning to the community and to ensure that they understand that they have the discretion to lease to all but two specific classes of felon.

The Attorney General issued a letter to state attorneys general urging them to review and consider the legal collateral consequences of their state laws being placed upon ex-offenders that may hinder their successful reentry into society.

“I also encourage states to take our lead in support the funding of effective alternatives to incarceration. By implementing a range of innovative, yet proven public health and public safety interventions, we can save taxpayer dollars and improve outcomes and break the cycle of drug use, crime, and incarceration,” said Kerlikowske.

A recent poll of 500 potential votersshows that Washington state voters could be divided on whether marijuana should become legalized.

Washington voters split on pot vote

Taxing Medical Pot Sales

• 70% Yes
• 22% No
• 8% Unsure

Legalization (for medical and all purpose use)

• 46% Yes
• 46% No
• 8% Unsure

The poll was taken from September 11-14 and was paid for by the Seattle political consulting firm Strategies 360.

This past weekend, the Washington state Democratic Party endorsed Initiative 502, a proposed 2012 measure that would legalize marijuana with distribution and sales put under control of the Liquor Control Board.

Washington state municipalities are finding themselves increasingly dealing with the growing number of medical marijuana dispensaries and the issue promises to be a main focus of upcoming elections.

The Seattle City Council passed a new law this summer that established some legal ground rules for the growing number ofmedical marijuana dispensaries in the city.

The City Council unanimously passed its own ordinance because efforts to address medical marijuana, which is legal in Washington, foundered earlier this year in Olympia. Seattle officials will take up the issue of in-city zoning for the pot shops in the coming weeks.

California has found itself in the midst of some of the same issues with legalization marijuana. The state is only one of six that has both medical marijuana and decriminalization laws.

There’s an interesting blog chronicling each state’s marijuana laws. Nice reading and very detailed about the recent laws in each state.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire, citing concerns about possible federal prosecution of state employees, vetoed most of a medical marijuana bill that would’ve set up a state regulatory framework for medical cannabis earlier this year.

However Governor Gregoire did allow a section in the bill permitting collective marijuana grows with up to 45 plants, serving up to 10 patients.

Evergreen State voters approved legalizing medical marijuana in 1998. Washington is one of 16 that has legalized medical marijuana but the federal government does not recognize the legalizing of medical marijuana.

Crime rate take unexpected turn downward since 2010

There were 1.2 million violent crimes and an estimated 9 million property crimes in 2010. Murder and non-negligent manslaughter fell to 4.8 per 100,00 population. This rate is less than half what it was two decades ago. 1963 was the last time the murder rate was this low.

In early September, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that the number of violent crimes fell by a surprising 12% and that there were 3.8 million violent crimes last year.

The Justice Statistics survey of households includes crimes both reported and not reported to law enforcement. In contrast to the household survey, the FBI report includes homicide, arson, commercial crimes and crimes against children under age 12.

The FBI report captures only crimes reported to law enforcement and excludes sexual assaults and simple assaults.

Violent crimes decreases since 2010:

Robbery – 10%

Rape – 5%

Murder – 4%

Non-negligent Manslaughter- 4%

Aggravated assault – 4%

Property crime decreases since 2010:

Motor vehicle thefts – 7.4%

Burglaries – 2%

Larceny thefts – 2.4%

Simple prevention part of personal crime theft drop

Disputed link between unemployment and crime rates

The expectation has been that crime stats would climb with rising unemployment since the economic crisis began in 2007.  It has been assumed that job loss and a rising crime rate are connected but that assumption has been disputed.

In 1984, The Joint Economic Committee in Congress issued a report in 1984 saying that a 14.3% increase in unemployment in 1973-74 led to a 1.7% increase in homicides. . Hubert Humphrey, D-Minn. wrote in his pre-face to the 1976 report by the same committee that a 1.4% rise in unemployment during 1970 was “directly responsible” for 1,740 additional homicides. Noted criminologist James Q. Wilson disputed this claim and wrote in 1985 that “even the strongest evidence of a crime-economy link does not explain more than a very small portion” of the year-to-year changes in crime rates.

The 2010 statistics once again question this link. “The connection between crime and the economy is an illusion held by people reading too many French novels. They remember Jean Valjean stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister’s starving children and assume the same thing should be going on in the U.S. today,” University of Cincinnati professor John Eck, who teaches criminal justice research methods, said Monday.

“Better at protecting their belongings”

Eck suggested that one important factor in driving down crime rates is improved policing practices that focus on high-crime locations in which “you are denying the criminal the ability to attack targets. Virtually every large city is doing something.”

Eck said since the 1970s, property crime has been going down and “probably the best explanation is that people are getting better at protecting their belongings, with all the simple devices industry has made to help — from car burglar alarms to better bicycle locks.”

According to criminologist’s theories, the decreases are attributed to an aging population, better policing and continued high rates of imprisonment. Other experts say that crime reporting due to cell phones and the Internet has been part of the downward trend.

Source: Associated Press

Alabama immigration law called "cruel"

The law, HB 56, is so controversial that four Alabama church leaders have deemed it “inhumane” and have sued to block it.  Episcopal bishop, a Methodist bishop and a Roman Catholic archbishop and bishop say the new immigration law criminalizes acts of Christian compassion.

Essentially the law makes it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant in Alabama. The law criminalizes work, renting a home and failing to comply with federal registration laws that are largely obsolete. The law nullifies any contracts when one party is an undocumented immigrant. It requires the police to check the papers of people they suspect to be illegal, creating a climate of fear for many Hispanic residents of the state.

The law seeks to punish:

• Apartment owners rent to illegals
• Private citizens who might drive an illegal to the doctor
• Anyone concealing, harboring or shielding an illegal immigrant
• Public schools will be required to determine a student’s immigration status and report to the state
• Businesses knowingly employing illegal immigrant could lose their business licenses

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Justice Department have also sued, calling the law an unconstitutional intrusion on the federal government’s authority to write and enforce immigration laws. The A.C.L.U. warns that the law would violate fundamental human rights to speak and travel freely. They also argue that the law denies children the chance to go to school and expose people to harassment and racial profiling.

Lawmakers and clergy disputing immigration law

We’ve seen this kind of racist lawmaking before in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. The lawsuit by the four clergy leaders is what makes this law in Alabama even more of note. The church leaders say that the immigration law, which was set to go into affect on Sept 1, violates their religious freedom to perform their duties and to carry out acts of charity without regard to the legal status of the person.

Alabama has seen the Fugitive Slave Act, Jim Crow and the Civil Rights struggle led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr but as one blogger has pointed out, “Waves of anti-immigrant hostility have made many in this country forget who and what we are.” Also, given the current economy, the law seems particularly harsh on farmers who could have their business license permanently revoked.

Congress had attempted a bipartisan reform that would have enabled millions of immigrants stranded by the failed immigration system to get right with the law. We can only hope that these Alabama church leaders can successfully appeal to state’s citizen’s sense of moral obligation and reason.

As of Sept. 2, a federal district judge, Sharon Blackburn, temporarily blocked the law for one month to have enough time to address the numerous challenges HB 56 faces.