Features
Jan. 1, 2012
Second Guesses
Criminal defense lawyers face conflicting emotions when they are accused of providing ineffective assistance of counsel. We talk to lawyers who have confronted this situation, and with postconviction specialists.
John Schick thought he had done a good job defending accused murderer Fernando Belmontes. Sure, his client got the death penalty - for bludgeoning a woman to death with a steel dumbbell bar during a burglary - but it was a nasty crime and there was plenty of evidence that Belmontes was the culprit. Schick, a long-time solo defense attorney in Stockton, considered it a victory of sorts that it took jurors two and a half days to agree that Belmontes should be executed for the killing. "...
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