The Burnout
June 8, 2015 6:26 AM Subscribe
I feel so sorry for her. I think her job is breaking her.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:54 AM on June 8, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:54 AM on June 8, 2015 [5 favorites]
Oh, wow. I tend to massively dislike the kind of millionare training camp, get-rich-quick, inspirational-quotes kind of person, but at least in this case, I can see why she's doing it, and it's heartbreaking.
posted by Zarkonnen at 6:57 AM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by Zarkonnen at 6:57 AM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
The business opportunities are seemingly limited to selling "training materials" and other inspirational debris about how to become wealthy?
posted by thelonius at 7:14 AM on June 8, 2015
posted by thelonius at 7:14 AM on June 8, 2015
The Marshall Project is excellent modern reporting. I am so happy it exists. I am also so happy people like Jennifer Herndon exist and persevere. One such person is a former colleague and friend of mine--she's amazing and this ungodly mixture of optimism, deep cynicism, lethargy and passion. Her coping mechanisms are specifically very different from Herndon's but I think they take on the same magical thinking components.
Relatedly, The Atlantic's recent story The Cruel and Unusual Execution of Clayton Lockett is very much worth reading. The social cost of the prison-industrial complex alone is staggering, but when you dig into the collateral damage that specifically results from the execution industry, it's hard not to vomit.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:25 AM on June 8, 2015 [5 favorites]
Relatedly, The Atlantic's recent story The Cruel and Unusual Execution of Clayton Lockett is very much worth reading. The social cost of the prison-industrial complex alone is staggering, but when you dig into the collateral damage that specifically results from the execution industry, it's hard not to vomit.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:25 AM on June 8, 2015 [5 favorites]
So the court officially doesn't define what the prosecutor's offices do as "services for the public good".
I learned recently that in Argentina, prosecutors' and criminal legal aid providers' salaries and benefits are exactly pegged to each other by law.
Depressing, eh?
Any legal system which strongly prioritizes funding of prosecution over defense is deliberately funding a system balanced in favor of the state and against the citizens of the state.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:53 AM on June 8, 2015 [11 favorites]
I learned recently that in Argentina, prosecutors' and criminal legal aid providers' salaries and benefits are exactly pegged to each other by law.
Depressing, eh?
Any legal system which strongly prioritizes funding of prosecution over defense is deliberately funding a system balanced in favor of the state and against the citizens of the state.
posted by showbiz_liz at 7:53 AM on June 8, 2015 [11 favorites]
This whole situation is completely and totally unethical on the part of the state of Missouri.
posted by likeatoaster at 7:56 AM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
posted by likeatoaster at 7:56 AM on June 8, 2015 [4 favorites]
One such person is a former colleague and friend of mine--she's amazing and this ungodly mixture of optimism, deep cynicism, lethargy and passion. Her coping mechanisms are specifically very different from Herndon's but I think they take on the same magical thinking components.
In my view, this is a bizarre story and that's kind of the point. I hope your former colleague is nothing like Herndon. The upshot is that MO keeps killing people while providing them with inadequate representation, but The Marshall Project lets you come to that conclusions yourself after reading this long story about their lawyer's credulous participation in get-rich-quick schemes.
I guess it's great reporting but it made me feel icky, especially because a story about the lawyer is likely to be more effective than stories about those condemned to die.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:56 AM on June 8, 2015
In my view, this is a bizarre story and that's kind of the point. I hope your former colleague is nothing like Herndon. The upshot is that MO keeps killing people while providing them with inadequate representation, but The Marshall Project lets you come to that conclusions yourself after reading this long story about their lawyer's credulous participation in get-rich-quick schemes.
I guess it's great reporting but it made me feel icky, especially because a story about the lawyer is likely to be more effective than stories about those condemned to die.
posted by anotherpanacea at 7:56 AM on June 8, 2015
It is not uncommon in the US for a state to fund, staff and equip a prosecutor's office while merely offering nominal pay to private attorneys who are appointed to defend indigent criminal defendants.
If you think for one tiny second anyone at any level of American government takes seriously the duty to provide a fair trial by ensuring a defense for poor people accused of a crime, you've never talked to someone involved in the system.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:00 AM on June 8, 2015 [11 favorites]
If you think for one tiny second anyone at any level of American government takes seriously the duty to provide a fair trial by ensuring a defense for poor people accused of a crime, you've never talked to someone involved in the system.
posted by crush-onastick at 8:00 AM on June 8, 2015 [11 favorites]
When I did that kind of work in California, I worked for the state; while we as lawyers were decently paid, our budget for investigation was simply swamped by what prosecutors could spend.
As has been noted above, there is a real sense in which police and prosecutors are viewed as working for "the People" (I mean, it's right there in the court filings), whereas any work done by defendants/appellants is perceived as an obstacle to seeing "justice" done. Our experts had to agree to work for a much lower fee than they got when they worked for prosecutors, and several experts were more or less on retainer JUST for the prosecution.
And that was California.
Nobody, but nobody, should have to do that work for peanuts, isolated, and traumatised by losing clients several times per year. Fuck Missouri.
posted by allthinky at 8:01 AM on June 8, 2015 [7 favorites]
As has been noted above, there is a real sense in which police and prosecutors are viewed as working for "the People" (I mean, it's right there in the court filings), whereas any work done by defendants/appellants is perceived as an obstacle to seeing "justice" done. Our experts had to agree to work for a much lower fee than they got when they worked for prosecutors, and several experts were more or less on retainer JUST for the prosecution.
And that was California.
Nobody, but nobody, should have to do that work for peanuts, isolated, and traumatised by losing clients several times per year. Fuck Missouri.
posted by allthinky at 8:01 AM on June 8, 2015 [7 favorites]
I was very interested by the documentary Gideon's Army about public defenders in North Carolina. At one point, the film showed a lawyer tricking the prosecution into getting lab work done because the defense couldn't afford it. That same lawyer talks about why he's willing to work for next to nothing. To be willing to do that and, at the same time, put up with the frustration you would feel at the compounded injustice, I think requires you to be almost superhuman. Herndon sounds like she's been fighting the good fight for too long.
posted by BibiRose at 9:12 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by BibiRose at 9:12 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
The US military pays its prosecutors and defense attorneys the same, and, most military criminal justice system attorneys move back and forth between prosecution and defense jobs several times in their careers.
posted by MattD at 9:28 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
posted by MattD at 9:28 AM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]
This is a video from a speech about the US criminal legal aid system, from a US DoJ representative to a mostly non-American audience. I think about it a lot.
A few points from it:
Each of the 50 states administers its own state legal aid system. Among these models are a public defender system, in which lawyers are government employees; a contract system, in which lawyers and law firms bid with local governments to perform defense services; and assigned lawyer systems, in which the court or someone within the court assigns lawyers to cases. The federal criminal legal aid system, which uses the public defender model, is often considered the best in the US, and is well funded and well resourced. However, over 90% of criminal cases in the US concern violations of state law.
The federal public defenders office is funded by annual appropriations from Congress. Its 2015 budget is 1 billion USD for 94 offices. At the state level, all states handle legal aid funding differently, and are supplemented by federal funding, as is tribal legal aid. According to a 2007 census, for the total of 957 state offices across the US, which handle over 5.6 million cases and employ over 15,000 attorneys, the annual budget was 2.3 billion USD, a vastly lower amount per office than at the federal level.
This is partly due to the fact that, when money is given to states by the federal government for criminal justice purposes, the federal government cannot require that it be used for any particular purpose area, including criminal legal aid. States often prioritize police and prosecution over legal aid when allocating that money.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:40 AM on June 8, 2015 [8 favorites]
A few points from it:
Each of the 50 states administers its own state legal aid system. Among these models are a public defender system, in which lawyers are government employees; a contract system, in which lawyers and law firms bid with local governments to perform defense services; and assigned lawyer systems, in which the court or someone within the court assigns lawyers to cases. The federal criminal legal aid system, which uses the public defender model, is often considered the best in the US, and is well funded and well resourced. However, over 90% of criminal cases in the US concern violations of state law.
The federal public defenders office is funded by annual appropriations from Congress. Its 2015 budget is 1 billion USD for 94 offices. At the state level, all states handle legal aid funding differently, and are supplemented by federal funding, as is tribal legal aid. According to a 2007 census, for the total of 957 state offices across the US, which handle over 5.6 million cases and employ over 15,000 attorneys, the annual budget was 2.3 billion USD, a vastly lower amount per office than at the federal level.
This is partly due to the fact that, when money is given to states by the federal government for criminal justice purposes, the federal government cannot require that it be used for any particular purpose area, including criminal legal aid. States often prioritize police and prosecution over legal aid when allocating that money.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:40 AM on June 8, 2015 [8 favorites]
when money is given to states by the federal government for criminal justice purposes, the federal government cannot require that it be used for any particular purpose area, including criminal legal aid. States often prioritize police and prosecution over legal aid when allocating that money.
I
what
I can't live in this country anymore. Goodbye.
posted by Mooseli at 12:16 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I
what
I can't live in this country anymore. Goodbye.
posted by Mooseli at 12:16 PM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Y'know .... fuck.
posted by Smedleyman at 5:02 PM on June 8, 2015
posted by Smedleyman at 5:02 PM on June 8, 2015
Wow. Her day job is so sad that she's trying to buy into becoming some kind of Internet millionaire...somehow?...and meanwhile she doesn't get paid jack and spends $10k on the millionaire seminar or whatever and ends up in more financial trouble... holy shit. I don't think all this positive sales stuff is helping her either under those circumstances.
*sigh*
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:25 PM on June 8, 2015
*sigh*
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:25 PM on June 8, 2015
« Older “If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad... | "There is no, no good reason for anyone to own... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Etrigan at 6:44 AM on June 8, 2015 [13 favorites]