Because Everybody Is Entitled To My Opinion

"O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, . . . in wrath remember mercy" (Habakkuk 3:2).
"Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?" (Psalm 85:6)

Friday, September 16, 2005

Blood Pressure...Rising...Must Control... Trigger Finger...

The Skipper over at >Barking Moonbat Early Warning System listed this story as the "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day." Brian McGrory's Injustice For Almost All details a disgusting turn of events revolving around Daniel LaPlant and a battery of high dollar lawyers.
Daniel LaPlante is a convicted triple murderer and not just any triple murderer, either. He broke into a neighbor’s house in rural Townsend in 1987, raped and executed the pregnant mother who lived there, then drowned her 7-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son in separate bathtubs. He smirked at the jury that convicted him. [snip]

In 2001, LaPlante complained about his safety in prison, and he was placed under extensive lockup. Unhappy with that, he sued state officials in federal court. Among other complaints, he said he wasn’t given unfettered access to the prison law library. He said he was mislabeled as a sex offender. He complained that officials intercepted ‘’sexually explicit” photographs mailed to him. He said a guard stole his shower shoes.

Palmer & Dodge took the case, supposedly pro bono, though please read on. In fact, it didn’t just take the case, it seemed to devote itself to it, assigning a partner, a senior associate, a midlevel associate, and a junior associate—four lawyers in all. Before I go on, spare me the argument from all the Lexus Liberals that even the most heinous criminals have the right to legal representation. They do. But is a convicted murderer really entitled to a battery of downtown lawyers because he wasn’t getting access to the library and his pornographic pictures in the mail?

Palmer & Dodge won the suit, and, lo and behold, its pro bono work wasn’t free any more. Federal law allows a firm to submit a bill when it wins a civil rights case, and it did: $125,000 in all. Judge Gertner ordered the state to pay $99,981 of it. That bears repeating: State taxpayers spent $100,000 on behalf of a convicted killer who slaughtered a pregnant woman and her kids.

‘’We did it as efficiently as we could,” said George Olson, a Palmer & Dodge partner. ‘’When we took the case, we didn’t expect to be compensated.”

Of course not.

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