I firmly
believe in the concept that those who cannot afford legal representation should
be granted competent legal advice via a public defender, courtesy of the
cognizant legal authority. I have several dear friends, one a former colleague
and several former students who have undertaken this frequently thankless
chore. While it is difficult, maybe impossible to find out the percentage of
attorneys who actually appear in court, I have seen one citation that estimates
5 to 7% do so. I saw another which alleges that perhaps as little as 2-5% of
civil cases ever require courtroom appearance. On the other hand, Public
defenders are overloaded and overworked. According to the Bureau of Justice
Statistics, the annual caseload assigned to public defenders spanned from 50 to
590 cases. Many, if not most, of these will require at least one court
appearance, and may eventuate into a trial situation.
I said that to
say this: Those who do this work should be among our brightest and best, and
believe me, those with whom I am personally familiar are even better than that,
but recent events in New York cause me to ponder if we shouldn’t pay these folks
better, be appropriately selective, and elevate their status as representatives of the lowliest. We have,
too often, seen appeals granted and even verdicts overturned with incompetent
representation cited as a factor, which brings me to what spurred this whole
scribble.
Yesterday, a New
York man, Grafton Thomas, drove from his home to a town about 40 miles away
with malice in his heart and a machete in his hand. He entered a house where a
Hanukkah ceremony was taking place and stabbed five persons, injuring five participants, one critically,
before another attendee struck him in
the head with a small end table, causing him (Thomas) to exit he house and,
after attempting and failing to open several doors in a neighboring synagogue,
flee the scene in his car. Fortunately, his license plate number was observed
and led to his later arrest at his home. He was described by arresting officers
as covered in blood and smelling of bleach. A blood covered machete was in his
vehicle and multiple guns were found later in a search of his house.
The article identifies
Michael Sussman as lawyer who spoke for the family regarding what he says is a
history of mental illness, He also announced he is “taking up” the case,
however, in all candor, maybe the family should have called him earlier. Sussman
was careful to state that “Thomas has no history of “like” violent acts.” (meaning
he never previously attacked anyone with a machete?) Sussman is not a public defender.
In the
actual arraignment, a court appointed public defender, Kristine Ciganik, allowed
Thomas to plead not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and a burglary charge.
She then alleged that he had “no criminal record”, but a law enforcement source
said Thomas has three criminal cases from the early 2000s, some of which are
sealed plus four other arrests, including charges of menacing and reckless
endangerment last summer, possessing an imitation pistol or air rifle in
Brooklyn in 2000, possessing a loaded gun in Brooklyn in 2001, and punching a
police horse in Midtown Manhattan in 2002, plus other more recent “sealed” charges.
The attorney is either a liar or incompetent not to have known or admitted to
Thomas’ previous record. To repeat, Grafton Thomas has actually been arrested
seven times, the majority of them having some element of violence attached,
including an assault on a Police horse. He has been a periodic violent offender
with alleged mental issues since his teens, and yet? The good news here is that
no one has died from his attack; the bad news is that with his history he was
allowed to drive and possess handguns (found later in his home).
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