Fowler v. Parratt (Nebraska): In 1982 a federal appeals court upheld Richard Fowler’s conviction for embezzlement even though his trial attorney was an alcoholic who was later disbarred. In a deposition, the attorney admitted to suffering blackouts while defending Fowler.
Full Answer
In at least three instances since 2006, judges were so taken aback by the condition of a defense attorney that they had the lawyer’s blood-alcohol content tested. Here were the results (keeping in mind that the threshold for drunk driving is .08):
Additional research by Eli Hager. Last night, at 10:51 p.m., Georgia executed Robert Wayne Holsey, a man with borderline intellectual functioning who was convicted of killing a sheriff’s deputy in 1995. Holsey was put to death despite concerns about the quality of his defense.
Burnett v. Collins (Texas): In 1993 a federal appeals court affirmed Charles Albert Burnett’s two convictions for aggravated robbery. During the trial Burnett smelled booze on his attorney’s breath – and after the trial, his attorney went into rehab for alcohol treatment. White v.
Garrison (California): In 1989, the California Supreme Court affirmed Richard William Garrison’s two murder convictions even though his attorney was an alcoholic who, during the trial, “drank in the morning, during court recesses, and throughout the evening.”.
Smith v. Ylst (California): In 1987 a federal appeals court affirmed the murder conviction of Joseph Anthony Smith, despite the erratic behavior of his court-appointed attorney. The lawyer’s secretary said her boss “told her he was crazy and wanted to go to an insane asylum.”.
White v. State (Florida): Jerry White was sentenced to death for the murder of a customer during a convenience-store robbery. At trial his attorney’s drinking problem was so evident that each morning the judge had the prosecutor check the attorney’s breath. A defense investigator “said he had witnessed the attorney shoot up with cocaine during trial recesses and saw him using speed, Quaaludes, alcohol, morphine and marijuana after court,” according to a law review article. On appeal, even the trial prosecutor filed an affidavit saying the defense attorney “appeared confused or fatigued.” The Florida Supreme Court affirmed White’s death sentence in 1995, and he was executed that year.
Frye v. Lee (North Carolina): Ronald Wayne Frye was sentenced to death in North Carolina for stabbing his landlord to death with a pair of scissors. In 2000, a federal appeals court noted that one of Frye’s lawyers had ...
Instead, by insisting on going ahead, he not only eventually reveals himself to be drunk, but as the judge said, "You've just laid a great foundation for ineffective assistance of counsel" just by offering to proceed while you possibly have a concussion.
his idea of friendship is like a middle schoolers. A lawyer who showed up to court drunk has been sober for 90 days now, and he said last week he's committed to rebuilding his shattered legal career in Las Vegas. "Cocaine was my main problem," Joseph Caramagno said.
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Caramagno admits that his preparation was harmed by his substance abuse, although he maintained last week that outside of his appearance in Leavitt's courtroom, he worked in the best interests of his clients.
The low point came a few days before Christmas, in 1990, when he went out to buy presents for what he thought would be his last family holiday, and ended up drinking instead at Joe Allen's bar on West 46th Street in Midtown.
It was his last high-profile trial, Agent Orange, settled for $180 million in 1984, that led to his disbarment in May 1989. He says his obsession with the case wrecked his small Long-Island based firm. A disciplinary panel found that in 1984 and '85, he borrowed money from the escrow accounts of other clients to make ends meet. "I was making seven figures and certainly spending as much money as I was making," he says.
He transferred the skills honed litigating in a courtroom to a new profession: acting. He never made it to Broadway, but for the eight years that he was banned from practicing law, he supported himself doing television commercials that typecast him as a wealthy executive or driving a Lexus, roles that capitalized on his sharply chiseled, Kirk Douglas looks.