I know countless lawyers I would not trust to review a simple contract. For criminal matters, too often we are entrusting someone's liberty to these same persons:
http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/judge_blasts_spectacularly_incompetent_lawyers_after_man_with_iron-clad_ali/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=ABA+Journal+Top+Stories
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As a criminal defense attorney who represents those falsely accused, I would not lambast the defense counsel. He asked his client about an alibi defense, and his client said that he did not know where he was at the time of the robbery. Was his client not aware that he was in jail? Of course, the attorneys get blamed, but at least he found it and got him out.
We are doomed, this guy was in jail with a solid alibi, yet he was convicted of a crime and given a life sentence. Only in Cash cow legal America, people.
The legal profession in the United States is a professional cartel where legislating lawyers and regulators produce thousands of new enforceable laws and regulations every year; judges, prosecutors, and private sector counsel lock arms to ensure that legal invoices, (which total almost 10 per cent of GDP -- almost $1.4 trillion annually), are paid as a priority surpassed only by the claims of government.
ksf, I would add that it's common for judges and their all-knowing 24-year-old law clerks to conclude that counsel fouled up. Will take your word on this one. I give the prosecutor less excuse not to know.
Arod, I wish what you wrote were true. If I had all the money I couldn't collect from clients (I like to think of it as "inadvertent pro bono work") I could take a year off. We've all wised up since the old days -- retainers are the norm. But there ain't no cartel or locking of arms. It's a business, like any other.
Chances are that after the conviction, the defense attorney was looking at his rap sheet in anticipation of a sentencing hearing, provided there is a delay in Texas between the findings phase of a trial and the sentencing phase of the trial. He was probably looking at Montgomery's previous criminal record and noticed the dates of his confinement, which it appears he promptly got him out of jail.
Should he have known? Should the prosecutor have known? Maybe, but I don't want to cast the stone against them. One thing I do know is that Montgomery definitely should have known that he was in jail on the date of the alleged crime.
As far as criminal defense attorneys being in bed with the government in order to collect fees, I assure you that is not true with most attorneys. I represent Soldiers falsely accused of sexual assault, and while the rape hysteria that currently encompasses the military justice system is profitable to me, I would prefer that the military did away with their SAPRO, Special Victim's Prosecutors, and concentrated on investigating the validity of the claim on both sides, and not just the accused's side, which probably would result in less demand for my services.
Defending the innocent against the US Government is a extremely difficult job. Knowing that an innocent Soldier's freedom is in your hands is one of the most stressful things I experience.
Ksf - ”As a criminal defense attorney who represents those falsely accused, I would not lambast the defense counsel. He asked his client about an alibi defense, and his client said that he did not know where he was at the time of the robbery. Was his client not aware that he was in jail?”
In this case, I would have to agree. The defense attorney can only go by what his client tells him. If the accused wasn’t astute enough to realize that he’d been in jail on the date of the alleged crime, that’s got to be on him.
This is unlike the case of William McCaffrey, who steadfastly insisted that not only did he not rape Buirny Peguero, but he didn’t bite her either – yet, his defense allowed the lack of analysis of the DNA recovered from a bite mark (later determined to have been inflicted by her friend, who was a DNA match to that “evidence”) to go unchallenged. McCaffrey was convicted based largely on that bite mark (DNA from which would have been exculpatory) tying him to the fictitious attack.
Now, that was a case of incompetence on the part of defense counsel.
Archivist - ”I give the prosecutor less excuse not to know.”
While the prosecutors would have had easy access to that information, given their typical workloads, if the defense was telling them that his client could not provide an alibi, then I wouldn’t expect the prosecutors to do the defense’s work for them and spend the time digging up that info. Now, if the accused had informed his attorney regarding is incarcerated status, and defense had relayed it to the prosecutor, then that prosecutor would have had the duty to research and verify the asserted alibi.
But, really, this is one that should never have been sent over to the prosecutor in the first place. Surely some member of the accused friends and family should have been able to recognize that he had been in jail at the time. And, the police would have pulled his “rap sheet” (the same one his defense was viewing), and, since they are the one who are typically responsible for following up on where abouts and alibis, they are the ones who should have caught it.
We don’t know what LaDondrell Montgomery did tell police when challenged about his where abouts on the date of the crime, but, if for example, he gave them deliberately misleading info which was easily refuted, then it would likely have seemed that he had no credible alibi.
We can speculate on who else should have caught the error, but ultimately, unless he was too mentally defective to have been able to aid in his own defense, that his “perfect alibi” went unnoticed is squarely on him.
Ksf - ”Chances are that after the conviction, the defense attorney was looking at his rap sheet in anticipation of a sentencing hearing”
I too had the initial impression that the defense was reviewing his rap sheet as part of their pre-sentencing report, but the article states that it was after he had been sentenced (to life, no less).
But, it seems that it was only noticed because the same attorney was began work on the next case pending against him.
Still, I would put the error primarily on LaDondrell Montgomery himself.
Ksf - ”As far as criminal defense attorneys being in bed with the government in order to collect fees, I assure you that is not true with most attorneys.”
A quick search of of Ronald Ray defense attorney finds as the first hit that he is a private attorney in the Houston area. Thus, it is likely that he was either serving as “alternate defense counsel”, or he was acting as private counsel for a client who was unlikely to (be able to) pay him. Either way, a defense attorney isn’t going to be getting rich taking on such cases/clients.
Many on this forum are well intentioned, and have a well founded suspicion of law enforcement and prosecutors, but have little understanding of all that actually happens in the criminal justice system, and instead base their opinions on less-than-reliable sources.
That Ray bothered to take the case to trial and was representing Montgomery in other cases suggests (to me) that he was making a serious and sincere effort in defending him.
Again, I go back to putting the blame on Montgomery himself far more than on anyone else.
It aint over until God says its over! Mr.Montgomery served his time for the crime of his past. Life sentence was dismissed cause he was found innocent!! He had an alibi-hello!!!! Dont judge a book by its cover,we all sinned and fell short of the GLORY OF GOD, and were forgiven! He's innocent and by the Grace of God,Mr.Montgomery is and will be free!!!!!!!
No weapon form against mr. Montgomery shall not prosper. It wont work!!!!! He is an overcomer!! :) i declare that mr.L. Montgomery BE A FREE MAN and HIS LIFE be given back to him, in JESUS name, AMEN!!! HE BELONGS AT HOME with his Family,them that been with him during this madness. God has not given mr.montgomery the spirit of fear but of love ,power,& a sound mind.
Its not mr.montgomery fault that he is in jail. Its the police and d.a. fault. They knew that he was & is an innocent man!!!!!! God dont make mistakes, man (society)does. What God mend for GOOD, the devil mend for BAD, but God is doing it for mr. Montgomery's GOOD!!!! :)be bless.
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