ackermann

Can’t you have the judge declare a mistrial, due to your lawyer’s incompetence, in cases like that?

If waiting until the week before the trial to contact alibi witnesses is so obviously damaging to their credibility, then doesn’t it constitute incompetence on the part of the lawyer, to wait that long?

judges are part of the system ... They aren't going to gum up the works like that

Better to gum up the works, then send innocent people to prison for decades?

Perhaps judges could take a stand in this way. By actually declaring mistrials when appropriate, due to defender’s incompetence (whether incompetent due to actual stupidity, or just being overworked). They could force congress to provide more funding for public defenders, as the works get “gummed up,” and it starts to appear on the news.

If congress has no choice but to provide more funding for public defenders, salaries go up, and more people will choose to become lawyers and public defenders.

Would it have made your childhood easier if your parents had let you dye it black?

Ah that’s the problem: We have elected judges. Seems like a big conflict of interest, to have to serve their constituents desires, rather than just serve justice.

But this would be something you’d use as a basis to appeal, rather than something the judge would use to declare a mistrial, at the end of the original trial?