Abbe Smith

Abbe Smith
Georgetown University | GU · School of Law

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26
Publications
2,072
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162
Citations
Introduction
Skills and Expertise

Publications

Publications (26)
Chapter
Ronnie1 was 16 when he got kicked out of school for the second time. First it was the local public school, now the private Christian school. His father would be furious. He had shelled out a lot of money for his kid to get himself expelled.
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This article is about an actual experience the author had defending a teenager accused of a serious crime where Bob Dylan grew up-- the Minnesota Iron Range. In order to protect the young man's privacy, it does not divulge the actual time period of the case. Likewise, details about his life and the charges he was facing have been changed. His name...
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Criminal defendants daily entrust their liberty to the skill of their lawyers. The consequences of the lawyer’s decisions fall squarely upon the defendant. There is nothing untoward in this circumstance. To the contrary, the lawyer as the defendant’s representative is at the core of our adversary process. As practicing lawyers know, interviewing an...
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The ethics of criminal defence lawyers and others who represent 'unpopular clients' is a largely unexplored area of legal scholarship in Australia. This article seeks to examine, from a comparative perspective, the motivations and ethical practices of these lawyers. Using interviews with Australian lawyers who represent the criminally accused, pris...
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In this Essay, I will discuss the "cycle of violence”, that transforms victims into perpetrators, focusing on the Aileen Wuornos case. I will examine the odd lack of support for Wuomos and others like her as soon as they become perpetrators. I will then talk about men and boys who have been sexually abused and become perpetrators. I will conclude b...
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Times may or may not be changing for gay people in the criminal justice system--and for the import of sexual orientation in criminal law. It depends on the nature of the case and, more importantly, exactly whose sexual orientation we are talking about. Signs of positive change include the recent high profile Matthew Shepard and Diane Whipple cases,...
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Somehow, it is understood that prosecutors have the high ground. Most people simply assume that prosecutors are the good guys, wear the white hats, and are on the "right" side. Most law students contemplating a career in criminal law seem to think this. It could be that most practicing lawyers think this, as well. Prosecutors represent the people,...
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There is nothing more compelling than a story about an innocent person wrongly convicted and ultimately vindicated. An ordinary citizen is caught up in the criminal justice system through circumstances beyond his or her control, spends many years in prison, and then one day, with the assistance of a dedicated lawyer, is freed. Often, when DNA is be...
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As all practicing lawyers know, interviewing and counseling are at the heart of legal representation. This is what lawyers do, even criminal trial lawyers: we talk with and advise clients. Sometimes, after considering the government’s case and available defenses, we advise clients to go to trial. More often, we advise them to take a plea. In counse...
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Of the legal scholarship examining the representation of the innocent accused, most has to do with guilty pleas, not trial or post-trial advocacy. Most of this literature is concerned with the pressure put on innocent defendants to plead guilty in order to receive a more lenient sentence than what they would get if found guilty at trial. This probl...
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In this essay, I discuss Springsteen's criminals by focusing on two albums, Nebraska and The Ghost of Tom Joad, and Springsteen's title song to the movie soundtrack Dead Man Walking. These are classic albums about criminals and prisoners, and "Dead Man Walkin’" may be one of the best songs ever written about being on death row. Before getting into...
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I believe there is no more important work than defending kids, especially those accused of serious crimes. The consequences of juvenile crime are increasingly severe, whether kids remain in the juvenile system or are prosecuted as adults. We lock up too many people in this country, many of whom are children. Surely, at the start of the twenty-first...
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My own view of criminal defense lawyering owes much to Monroe Freedman. I agree with his "traditionalist view”, of criminal defense ethics as a lawyering paradigm in which zealous advocacy and the maintenance of client confidence and trust are paramount. Simply put, zeal and confidentiality trump most other rules, principles, or values. When there...
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Although defending defending may be an endless pursuit, I cannot help taking it on. I am, after all, a defender myself, and defending fellow defenders seems to go with the territory. Of course, attacks on criminal defenders do not come out of nowhere - difficult and complex questions often arise in criminal defense work. Unfortunately, the question...
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In this essay, I argue in favor of so-called "defense-oriented judges." Instead of the increasingly prosecution-oriented judicial aspirants who ascend to the bench, we need more judges who care about protecting the rights of the accused, who will put the government to the test, and who have some compassion for those who come before them. Instead of...
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In this Article I will examine Professor Ogletree's paradigm for motivating and sustaining public defenders ten years after he proposed it. I will discuss whether Professor Ogletree's paradigm works for defenders in the predominantly high-volume, urban settings in which they practice, and if so, for how long. If the paradigm works for short-term de...
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In this article, we will explore what unites lawyers for the abused and lawyers for the accused. In Part II, we will discuss our connection as poverty lawyers concerned about the dignity of individual clients. In Part III, we will discuss our shared commitment to the adversarial system, legal process, and access to justice. In Part IV, we will addr...
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On April 9, 2002, a troop of armed FBI agents stormed the Brooklyn town house of sixty-two-year-old Lynne Stewart. A school librarian turned criminal lawyer, Stewart thought they had come for her life partner, longtime political activist Ralph Poynter. Flashing an arrest warrant, the agent in charge informed her otherwise, "We're not here for him,...
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Defenders bear witness to an awful social experiment gone awry. Punishment has taken the place of every other intervention because it is so simple. It divides the world neatly into good people and bad, the worthy and unworthy, victims and perpetrators. Once we punish the bad, the unworthy, the perpetrators, the rest of us can rest easy. We can say...

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