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Sunday, February 13, 2011

Courts - "To Defend the Accused in a Tucson Rampage, First a Battle to Get Inside a Mind"

Joseph Goldstein and Marc Lacey of the NY Times have this very interesting story today on "Judy Clarke, the public defender for the man charged in the Tucson shooting, Jared L. Loughner." Just a sample:

For the small cadre of lawyers specializing in federal death penalty cases, getting the defendant to trust them, or just to grudgingly accept them, can be half the battle. That is especially true when mental illness is a factor, as it may be in the case of Mr. Loughner, a troubled young man accused of opening fire on a crowd on Jan. 8 in an attempt to kill Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

In her unassuming, almost motherly way, Ms. Clarke excels at getting close to people implicated in awful crimes. In jailhouse meetings that can stretch most of the day, she listens intently and grows to know her outcast clients in a way few ever have in their troubled lives, colleagues say.

Other entries on Attorney Clarke may be found here, from Jan. 12, 2011, and here from Jan. 11th.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 13, 2011 02:12 PM
Posted to Courts in general