This remark is in response to current letters that recommend drafting retired attorneys to defend indigent defendants in felony issues. I’m a retired legal professional with a few years of expertise in civil litigation. Does that imply I’m certified to characterize a defendant in a felony matter? Completely not! Do all retired felony protection attorneys sustain with the ever-changing legislation within the felony sector? In all probability not.
Indigent defendants in felony issues have a proper to counsel pursuant to Article I, Section 11 of the Oregon constitution (sure, similar to gun house owners purportedly have a constitutional proper to bear arms on their weekend journey to Costco). To be able to afford felony defendants their constitutional proper to an satisfactory protection, certified felony attorneys who’re mandated by the Oregon Bar to maintain up with present developments within the legislation are crucial. Not retired attorneys who might not be bodily, and even cognitively, as much as the job.
The simplest and finest answer to the public defender shortage is to extend the pay for Oregon’s public defenders to at the very least that supplied by the prosecutor’s workplace. That means, we will entice adequate, certified attorneys to use for jobs as public defenders moderately than dismiss felony issues as a result of we will’t present felony defendants with their constitutional proper to a protection.
Brenda Morris, Newberg
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