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Inmate Writes Harvard Law Review Article | 5 comments (5 topical)
Re: Inmate Writes Harvard Law Review Article (none / 0) (#1)
by scribe on Tue Aug 01, 2006 at 01:24:31 PM EST
Tragic. But, having been only a defendant, he doesn't know what the other part of the "real system" as opposed to "mirage system" is - that which goes on in the courthouses behind the bench. When I was in law school, half a decade or more pre-AEDPA, it was routine for federal judges to take on student law clerk/interns in their chambers. You'd get law school credit, the judge got extra help. The jobs the student interns got? Reviewing appeals from Social Security benefits denials and pro se prisoner habeas petitions. One of my roommates (A Federalist Society member who later went on to work many years defending the State's position in capital case appeals - still does, I think.) and a friend of his did such an internship, and I remember them laughing about how they handled the habeas petitions. Pile them up, laugh at the bad writing, criticize the penmanship, deny them all. That sort of thing - a very cavalier, laughing attitude. So, not only does the fundamental right of habeas get hosed inside the prison, but even when it gets to the Courthouse, if it gets to the Courthouse, it gets (effectively) decided by someone with not much more legal education than the prisoners writing it, and often someone who has an agenda and neither the experience nor the maturity to set it aside. Here's a part of what should be the real agenda for the Dems, should they retake Congress. 1. Repeal the parts of AEDPA pertaining to prisoners' suits and habeas limitations, retroactively. > How many judicial decisions have been issued over the last 10 years trying to square that statute with the Constitution? (A lot more than were necessary to determine habeas petitions before, that's for sure.) And force more and better public funding for criminal defense at the trial and appellate level. And make proving ineffective assistance of counsel easier. (going OT now) 2. Repeal the Bankruptcy Act from last year. 3. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 and other laws limiting labor/worker power (give some real power to the unions again). 4. Force the War Powers Resolution and limits on the Unit's purported authority. I could think of a lot more, but I really should move on....

Inmate Writes Harvard Law Review Article | 5 comments (5 topical)

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