Obama Withdraws Nomination of Lawyer Who Defended Mumia

Had been blocked by Senate Republicans for key civil rights post

President Obama withdrew his controversial nominee to a key civil rights post Monday, after the Senate blocked the nomination earlier this year.

Debo Adegbile will instead become a partner at the Washington law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr, the firm announced.

Adegbile's nomination for assistant attorney general was blocked by Senate Republicans in March because of the role he played in the defense of convicted cop killer Mumia Abu-Jamal. The vote was 47-52.

Comments

[bassjoe]

Ah, how far we have come... Our second president defended the British soldiers accused of the Boston Massacre. He won acquittals for six of eight of them.

Now, attorneys can't be involved in a remotely controversial case without risking a future judgeship or executive appointment. How is it good for justice exactly if the skilled attorneys don't want to take on important cases?

[Acosmist]

Remotely controversial?

Fuck off.

[Marty Feldman's Eyes]

Too many people in this country are completely comfortable with the idea that unpopular defendants don't deserve to have a lawyer. Might as well have mob lynchings instead of trials.

[Faceless Commenter]

"No one doubts that Abu-Jamal was entitled to a legal defense. That's not the problem. The problem is that Adegbile led not just a defense but a street campaign to denounce the policeman Abu-Jamal killed, Officer Daniel Faulkner, and the police in general, as an occupying fascist army."
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http://www.crimeandconsequence......html#more

[Trollificus]

Cool story, bro.

Sounds like the kind of "narrative" knee jerk liberals routinely trot out.

Mumia got his defense, above and beyond what 99.9% of the citizenry would get for much lesser crimes. The guy committed a race-motivated hate crime and his "defense team" dragged the victim through the mud.

In a society where there are screams of "victim blaming!" for the merest suggestion that a woman might, just might, by her dress and actions make sexual assault more likely, how can this be considered acceptable behavior, "best defense" aside??

And there IS a point beyond which it is not a matter of "best defense"; when a defendant is, in fact, convicted and even, as in this case, OBVIOUSLY GUILTY AS FUCK. At that point the work of the noble attorney who undertook the defense of the "unpopular defendant" is done.

The actions taken by this shitbag beyond that point are nothing I would want on the resume of anyone in a position of substantial governmental power, consisting as they did of nothing more or less than racial shit-stirring for personal gain.

You can go back to your dreamy little "noble attorney/ignorant public" narrative now. Tell me, do we really look like ants from up there?

[katiechalkleynob]

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[Anon E. Mouse]

A wise old, very VERY wealthy attorney once told me: "It's not an attorney's job to set the guilty free; it's his job to make sure they get a fair trial on their way to prison. Any attorney who would twist facts or fabricate untruths in order to free a guilty defendant is not morally fit to be an officer of the court."