Alaska

[Tom In DC]

Hang in there, Jim. The system will miss you when you're gone.

[JimHow]

Thanks, my brother. On to the next battle.
Man, it doesn’t get any easier though….

[Claudius2]

Jim
I almost choked when you said the client was 47. He would have only been a kid when the crime (whoever it was) was committed. So he’ll now waste the rest of his life in a shitty prison.

The thought of that is really sad. I just hope the appeal can be expedited but waiting for it would also be hell.

Regards
Mark

[JimHow]

Yes he was 18 when it happened, now he’s facing 99 years in the Alaska state prison. It’s a rough business defending homicides. I’ve had four murder cases pending this past year, two I resolved successfully, one unsuccessfully, and I have one more pending, and then I’m retiring! I turned down a murder case last week for the son of one of my best clients, I just can’t do it any more. Last night at 10pm I got a call from the son of one of my other best clients, his dad was arrested for strangling his girlfriend (she’s not dead). Gotta go out to Oxford County to do a bail argument for him… Don’t they know I’m trying to take a few days off…

[AKR]

I get the feeling your 'best clients' are also the DA's 'best clients' too!

[Claudius2]

Jim
Yes I follow I feel rather exhausted just reading about them.

I stopped taking in consulting work a few years ago as I could no longer take the travel, different time zones, endless time pressures and sometimes unrealistic clients. One downside is that my income now is largely investment driven but I spend only half of what I earn anyway. I also have hundreds of cases of Bordeaux and Burgundy already and at current consumption rate, we have enough to last until I’m 80.

So I imagine that losing a case must be really stressful knowing the fact that the client may get banged up for life. The death penalty here is too common and I’ve been lobbying the Govt against it but the last review here led to only minor changes. Not enough locals opposed it despite online petitions.

One twist was that the last Australian to be executed (1960’s) was later found to almost certainly be innocent as exculpatory evidence was withheld by prosecutors. so to answer your question about which is worse - there can be nothing worse than killing someone on false evidence, corrupted officials or simply a bad jury decision. If officials deliberately withhold evidence and get a death penalty, in my mind they are just murderers.

Regards
Mark

[JimHow]

An expose on the Alaska case, I haven’t really read it, been sleeping all week…

https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/02/19/a ... cold-case/

And related stories…

https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/02/19/d ... cold-case/

https://www.sunjournal.com/2022/02/19/f ... or-access/

[Claudius2]

Jim
The first article suggests that the DNA testing ruled out your client.
If so, I can’t make any sense of how he was convicted.
The article made the point that he was found guilty on circumstantial evidence but surely if he was excluded by DNA testing then none of this makes sense.

Regards
Mark

[JimHow]

There was DNA that undoubtedly included him Mark, we fought over some separate DNA evidence that appeared to exclude him. It’s on to the appeal process now.

[Claudius2]

Jim
OK I get it, seems like a tough case.
cheers
Mark

[JimHow]

Off on my final trip to Alaska on Friday for a week, I was thinking of stopping in Napa/SF on the way back MichaelP but I gotta get back to Maine.
I'll see you in DC next month!

[Chateau Vin]

All the best to you and your client...

[DavidG]

Safe travels. Looking forward to DC!