Sheldon Whitehouse, attorney general of Rhode Island and a member of the NDAA Board of Directors, has announced his candidacy for governor, joining two other Democrats in the race. Declaring that he has tackled some of Rhode Island’s toughest issues, from a banking crisis to street gangs, he said he’s now ready to be governor. In announcing his candidacy, Whitehouse called attention to his experience as legal counsel and policy chief under former Gov. Bruce Sundlun, as well as his work as a U.S. attorney and state attorney general, emphasizing that he would not need “a training year” as governor. In Rhode Island, the attorney general is the state’s chief prosecutor.
After a New Bedford, Massachusetts, judge released four accused rapists without bail and told a prosecutor that a 14-year-old rape victim should “get over it,” Bristol County (New Bedford) DA Paul Walsh Jr., an NDAA board member, demanded that the judge not be allowed to handle criminal cases and be assigned to civil court. A police chief in the jurisdiction has called for the judge, Superior Court Judge Ernest B. Murphy, to resign. Murphy, a veteran civil attorney, was appointed to the superior court bench two years ago and has drawn criticism for his rulings in a number of criminal cases. One of the accused rapists released pending trial had been tracked by police for 18 months before being captured in Louisiana. The judge created a furor among prosecutors and victims’ rights advocates when he released on bail a teenager accused of planning a Columbine-style rampage at New Bedford High School. DA Walsh said, “Clearly there’s a pattern here,” adding, “Everywhere I go, people are shaking their heads at these decisions.” DA Walsh got his wish. After Judge Murphy met with state Chief Justice Suzanne DelVecchio for what Justice DelVecchio later described as “a long talk,” Judge Murphy volunteered to hear only civil cases.
Massachusetts Acting Gov. Jane Swift named a Boston city councilor, Daniel F. Conley, as interim Suffolk County (Boston) district attorney, to succeed Ralph C. Martin II, who resigned in January to take a position in private practice. Conley will run for a full term in the November election. Conley was originally appointed an assistant DA by Newman Flanagan, currently NDAA’s executive director, and served until he resigned to run successfully for the council seat. Martin is a former NDAA vice president.
Mills Lane, one of NDAA’s most colorful members when he was DA of Washoe County (Reno), Nevada; former Washoe County district judge, former host of the Judge Mills Lane TV show, former boxing referee and one time Olympic boxing contender, was one of the Reno celebrities who carried the Olympic torch as it made its way toward Salt Lake City and the 2002 Winter Olympics. “I was one fight away from the Olympics in 1960,” Lane recalled. “I got beat in the finals. Now to be involved in (the Olympics) this way is a kick in the tail. It’s great.”
Fairfax County (Virginia) Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert F. Horan, Jr., an NDAA vice president, won a significant victory in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, when the court ruled that convicted felons do not have a constitutional right to post-conviction DNA testing. The ruling reversed a groundbreaking opinion issued last year in the case of a Fairfax County man serving 25 years for a rape he contends he did not commit. A three-judge federal appeals panel found unanimously that inmate James Harvey had failed to prove that prosecutor Horan violated his civil rights by refusing to consent to DNA testing in the case. Two of the three judges also found that the court should not consider Harvey’s claim of a due process violation because, the panel said, Harvey was trying to circumvent the limits on prisoners’ appeals in a federal court.
William L. (Bill) Gibbons, district attorney general of Tennessee’s 30th Judicial District (Memphis and Shelby County), led a law enforcement coalition representing prosecutors, police and sheriffs in a series of statewide press conferences to gain public support for the group’s priorities for the state legislature during a state budget crisis. Pointing out that Tennessee had the nation’s 10th highest crime rate in 2000, Gibbons declared that criminals won’t wait for Tennessee lawmakers to settle the budget. The coalition’s priorities include 47 more local prosecutors statewide, more court programs to help non-violent drug addicts kick the habit and tougher penalties for criminals who use illegal firearms and for crimes committed by street gangs (three or more persons acting together).
Among the former prosecutors running for public office this year, one is running for governor, another is running for the U.S. senate and four are running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives. Rod Blagiovich, a former Cook County (Chicago) Illinois assistant state’s attorney, is seeking the Illinois governorship. He’s a Democrat. James Durkin, a Republican state legislator and former Cook County assistant state’s attorney, is running for the U. S. senate with the backing of former Illinois Governor James Thompson. Running for seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are Richard Casey, former state’s attorney for Lake County, South Dakota; George M. Ducworth, former solicitor for the 10th Judicial Circuit of South Carolina; Buddy Darden, former DA of Cobb County, Georgia; and Greg Hecht, former assistant DA in Clayton County (Jonesboro), Georgia, and currently a state senator.
Patricia C. Jessamy, state’s attorney for Baltimore City, Maryland, and an NDAA board member, has received the Leadership in Law Award sponsored by The Daily Record, a Baltimore business and legal news journal. The award recognizes successful members of the Maryland legal community “who have devoted their time and energy to improving the profession, have committed themselves to improving their community and have mentored future professional and community leaders.”
Jeffrey C. (Jeff) Sullivan received a rousing sendoff from his former Washington state prosecutor colleagues as he left his post as DA of Yakima County to join the U.S. attorney’s office in Seattle as chief of the criminal division for western Washington. Among the expressions of tribute in a two-page article in the newsletter of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys were these: “Jeff probably never set out to be the quintessential example of how to live, how to work and how to treat people, but that’s what he ended up being. Whenever something big was about to happen, very often the first thought we had was ‘Let’s talk to Jeff.’ It seemed to us that his quality of being direct on matters of importance was merely a reflection of his deep commitment to the public trust that the prosecutor carries as the representative of our system of laws, and the social values behind those laws.” Sullivan was a longtime NDAA member and a past vice president.
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