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Originally Posted by jeffsquire
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Sorry, but I don't buy ANY of the retained versus court appoint/low cost lawyers. Statistics bear out that there's no difference on the quality of legal representation when it comes to how much you pay, if your poor and appointed a lawyer.
I'm a prosecutor. I know plenty of court appointed attorneys I deal with who I'd have represent me in any sort of case, including murder, than many "high" priced lawyers.
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well that's true but leaves out some aspects of the question of quality of lawyer.
Most of the convictions that are reported in D.O.J statistics are for the crimes that law enforcement were of course able to make arrests on. This is overwhelmingly drug related where the evidence is as convincing as it gets. The conspiracy laws in the federal system were also a big help in convictions, as anyone who had any knowledge regardless of whether or not they actually directly involved were convicted. In my investigations and this was federal at the time, only the dumbest, slowest, most drug addicted def. were arrested, or their accomplices or the agency's C.I. set them up. The mules if you will..The evidence in nearly all of these cases was clear and convincing. Pretty hard to screw up a conviction unless you had a biased jury. Since this is the bulk of criminal cases where the quality of legal representation isn't going to make a difference its a bit misleading because the statistics don't distinguish between 'tough' cases for a prosecutor where the quality of legal representation is absolutely pivotal. But how do you measure that?
You can't.
not to mention after a conviction of a def. in the appellate courts, such as in capital cases where the average court appointed lawyer has an appellate budget so miniscule that its a nearly impossible task to do any sort of genuine research without assistance from legal charities. The indigent and destitute in states like Texas and Oklahoma are royally screwed. And since state courts are highly political where judges are often elected (vs. appointed by the President) their decisions have to please the public no matter what a skilled appellate lawyer is arguing. Well heck even the U.S. Supreme Court went political in Bush v. Gore.
That was a shock for even this jaded New Jerseyan.
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