Friday, December 7, 2012

Public Defenders, Bloggers, & Other Pariahs


Technically, the State of Alabama doesn't have "public defenders," but "court-appointed attorneys." A few counties have contracted out these glamorous positions, but in the Shoals a judge will still appoint representation for a defendant found to be indigent. A recent commenter has bemoaned the fact that these JDs are not competent to handle murder cases. We'll add that the commenter, PayAttention, now has the dubious honor of being only the second to be banned from this site due to his/her language and trollish posts.

We disagree with those who claim court-appointed lawyers are inept or don't care. We know several local attorneys who take such cases, but is it fair to choose just one and showcase him or her to the exclusion of the others? It doesn't seem so; therefore, tomorrow we'll be looking at a Huntsville attorney who routinely takes court-appointed cases. It promises to be enlightening.

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Any of our readers attend the Florence Christmas parade? If you didn't, here's a review by a new local blogger. We'll say two things: Just don't shoot the messenger and if we'd known the Rotary Club was dispensing Laffy Taffy we would have made it a point to be there.


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Our friend Jeremy Britten loved the parade, but after reading the caption of this photo, he could be accused of a temporary lapse in judgment.


Uber hip? If you say so, Jeremy. If the car didn't say "Florence City Council," we would have thought it was a casting call for the next season of Walking Dead.



Shoalanda

7 comments:

  1. Just a bit of sarcasm. Was that not obvious? :)

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    1. Yep. Even my great aunt Bertha wouldn't call them hip. Thanks for your excellent Tweets and keep our friend Daniel in line.

      Hmmm, maybe he could do a pod cast: Florence City Council Gets a Billy Reid Makeover?

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  2. You're exactly right. It's not fair to judge them all based on one, or even a few. So I shouldnt say that NONE of them care about their defendants. But that also means that you shouldn't say that they ALL do care.

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    1. We agree. We don't recall saying all care, but we do believe most of them do.

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  3. The public defenders or court appointed are just as capable to defend someone as anyone.
    The difference is that they will have to ask the judge for extra money to do things like investigations ect... Or, if you would like you can pay him yourself for these extras. if you don't have money then you are at the mercy of the court.

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  4. Thank you. I appreciate you changing the topic today.

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    1. Joni, we're aware that you're in a traumatic situation and feel for you; however, our topic today is related to your brothers, although not specific to them. As of now, we have no news on which to comment concerning them. When we do, we will. We are very happy to publish anything you have that is related to them on a positive note.

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