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Infinity Goes On Trial: Sanism, Pretextuality, And The Representation Of Defendants With Mental Disabilities, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

This paper, presented to the mid-winter meeting of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (Austin, TX, 2/18/16), explains why it is essential for lawyers representing criminal defendants with mental disabilities to understand the meanings and contexts of sanism - a largely invisible and largely socially acceptable irrational prejudice of the same quality and character of other irrational prejudices that cause (and are reflected in) prevailing social attitudes of racism, sexism, homophobia, and ethnic bigotry - and pretextuality - the means by which courts regularly accept (either implicitly or explicitly) testimonial dishonesty, countenance liberty deprivations in disingenuous ways that bear …

Preface, Symposium: Criminal Defense In The Age Of Terrorism, Tanina Rostain, Donald Zeigler

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Take Courage: What The Courts Can Do To Improve The Delivery Of Criminal Defense Services, Adele Bernhard

Articles & Chapters

In this article, I first, suggest that the current deplorable state of criminal defense services should provide a motivation for judicial action. Then, I review the precedent providing the foundation for judicial action. In the third section, I discuss the standards applicable to defense services. In the final section, I speculate about the changing role of the criminal defense attorney and how that evolution might hasten judicial action.

Religion And The Public Defender, Sadiq Reza

Articles & Chapters

It takes a special breed to have the understanding, compassion

and dedication to do what criminal defense lawyers do .... As

for public defenders - they are doing God's work. If Christ had

been a lawyer, he would have been a public defender.

Virtually all public defenders fight a daily battle against burnout

and the creeping erosion of confidence that inevitably accompany

defending acts we cannot condone and protecting those who are

the source of so much harm and grief. . . . Whether the process

unfolds subtly or suddenly, all defenders must confront the disturbing

consequences of their zealous …