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PD Blog Guide

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UPDATED 8/19/07

 

ACTIVE PD BLOGS
in alphabetical order

  • A Public Defender’s Life in Alaska used to be called “God I Hate California.” The author is a Canadian transplant who finally got his wish to move from California to Alaska. Most of his posts are about family and home, with some job-related posts as well, plus there are lots of pictures and even some audio posts. The blog’s first post, I Gotta Get Out Of Here, was on September 17, 2005 and helps explain the blog’s title.
  • A Year in the Life began on July 27, 2006 with a post describing why its author Michelle wanted to start a blog: “I really never took myself to be the type to ‘blog’ as they say, but I’m embarking on an experience that I want to chronicle, and let others have access to, and this is the easiest way to accomplish that task. In the past week, I decided I am going to apply to become a gestational carrier, i.e. surrogate mother.” The blog is primarily about the process and challenges of becoming a surrogate mother, plus there are posts about her friends and family.
  • Skelly at Arbitrary and Capricious is in the Pacific Northwest, loves animals, finds some of the most off-the-wall stories about public defenders, obviously has a passion for his job and clients, and is one of the most prolific public defender bloggers. Hardly a day goes by when there aren’t posts. In fact, whenever he takes a break I feel a little lost and the universe seems to make a little less sense. Skelly also has the blogs Idajevo and The Duck Box. Skelly’s first post on A&C was July 4, 2004: Mission Statement. Named by That Lawyer Dude as one of “My Favorite Blogs of 2006.”
  • audacity doesn’t have any biographical information, but it’s safe to say she is a University of Georgia football fan. The blog often looks at current issues, especially those in Georgia. A recent re-creation of the blog has limited the archives (the posts now only go back to September 19, 2006). The first post on the new site is called Hello World! but is, alas, password protected. A post from the old site, dated August 16, 2006, is titled Sigh and begins, “I’ve officially been at this job for one year.”
  • Donzell of Between a Laugh and a Tear is also from Georgia. The blog is relatively new and has posts about life on the job. Donzell’s first post was on August 1, 2006 and is titled A Brief Introduction. From a recent post: “There are days when I wonder why the hell did I ever get into this line of work or come back to it.”
  • black sky theory is written by Roxtar of West Virginia. His profile explains the title of the blog. The blog’s first post was on February 2, 2006 and is called “And away we go…” The blog includes commentary on current events, cultural riffs, and a healthy smattering of video clips.
  • Blind Insight appears to be the only blog published by a federal public defender. The author is Madeline, and the blog’s title comes from the fact that she has Usher’s Syndrome and is losing her sight (and has hearing problems). From her biography: “I like to think that the depth of my insights is somewhat related to my lack of outward sight.” Madeline’s first post was 10/27/03, but note that the email address has changed.
  • Blonde Justice of “Criminal Court, Big City” has been blogging since 2002 and started the Blonde Justice blog in 2004. She seems to have the largest following of all of the PD bloggers, judging from the links on other sites (Technorati reports that an impressive 130 blogs link to Blonde Justice) and the number of comments she regularly gets. She frequently blogs about popular culture, love, social issues, odd news stories, and occasionally about the job in general terms. Read her “About The Blawg.” Her first post on Blonde Justice was on May 15, 2004 and is called Momma’s Got A Brand New Blog.
  • Karl Keys has been publishing Capital Defense Weekly since December, 1997. Take a look at Volume 1, Edition 1 (see the Comments below for Karl’s warning). CDW is essential reading for anybody involved in capital defense, with nearly-daily updates on developments, legal issues, appeals and the latest scholarship. Karl publishes a weekly email edition, plus you can sign up at CDW to get daily emails with his latest posts. (This listing used to be in “Honorable Mention”, below, but in addition to being an incredible resource for capital defense information, Karl is also a public defender, so I’ve finally gotten around to moving CDW to “Active PD Blogs.”)
  • Albert Clifford of Defending Those People is in Southeast Florida and posts a lot about the job, as well as politics, culture, and commentary. The blog started January 6, 2006 with this Introduction.
  • Demonstrative Evidence is a new blog by Charles Thomas, an assistant PD in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Not sure how long the blog will appear here, however, since his resume (which is linked from the blog) says he is “ready to enter the next phase of his career.” The first post was October 20, 2006 and is called My New Project.
  • Do Not Pass Geaux is the blog of Brian Privor, who has returned to New Orleans (he did his undergrad at Tulane) and is “serving six months as a public defender.” The blog began on November 9, 2006 with an untitled post that says, “I now will be living here for the next six months, and I hope to use this blog to chronicle my experiences here over that time.”
  • Dream Antilles is the blog of part-time public defender David Seth Michaels. The title of the blog is also the title of his book by the same name, which he describes as a “magical, utopian novel.” David warns in a recent comment on PD Stuff that his blog has nothing to do with the job. His first post on August 7, 2005 talks about the book and why he started the blog. NOTE: this is the first and only PD blog I’ve seen where all of the days and dates in the headings and archives are in Spanish. Very cool.
  • Federal Defender Blogs cover almost all of the Federal Circuits. The link takes you to a listing of all of the active FD blogs, provided by fd.org.
  • Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t is a new project (the first post was October 15, 2006) subtitled “A Montana Criminal Defense Blog.” From the About page: “‘Fight ‘Em ‘Til We Can’t’ is a blog about Montana criminal defense practice and law. Its creators hope it will become a useful resource for the Montana criminal defense bar by offering news and analysis of recent crimlaw decisions from around the state, as well as discussion of crimlaw decisions and trends from around the country.” The first post is called Hello World!

  • Frolics and Detours began on November 26, 2004 with a post titled It’s Official… while Frolics was still in law school. She passed the bar on October 27, 2006 (the title and body of the post announcing her results is simply “I PASSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!“). The blog has an interesting feature: a caseload count in the biography area. The description will update as Frolics posts in her new job.
  • Gideon’s Guardians offers the sporadic posting of 3 PDs from the Midwest and adopted a “Three’s Company” theme of characters: Jack, Chrissy and Janet. There have been changes recently, including removing the photo of the Three’s Company TV show’s cast from the blog. Jack recently ran for judge, but was defeated by the incumbent and will apparently remain at the PD office and continue blogging. Chrissy is leaving/has left the PD’s office, so won’t be part of the blogging team, but “Terri” may be joining the team, keeping with the TV show theme. The team approach brings various perspectives, including about the job, current issues, and the occasional “Paraphilia Phriday” post. The first post was July 1, 2005 and is called Welcome To The Blog.
  • Hammers and Scales is written by a New Orleans public defender. Actually, there are three recently-transplanted people who contribute to the blog; the public defender who contributes is named Jordan. An early post about the state of things in The Big Easy is titled “DA’s Like To Keep Cops Off The Streets.”
  • Human Wreckage is written by “Dubie, Dubie, Do”, who describes herself as “Lawyer. Punk. Shit-disturber. Love me or hate me, I don’t give a rat’s ass.” The web address begins “suckmychicken.”
  • The Imbroglio recently went from law student in Washington, D.C. to public defender in Montana, changing the title of the blog from Ambivalent Imbroglio. The blog is a wonderful collection of articles from around the internet, as well as TI’s observations about life, politics and the law. On the homepage of the blog, click on “Images” to see TI’s photo-a-day project. Very impressive. The first post of law-student-turned-PD was on April 27, 2006 and is simply titled Welcome to the imbroglio.
  • In The Moment - A Blog For Warriors is written by David Tarrell, who also has an apparently inactive PD blog called Damned Defenders (see the Gone But Not Forgotten section below). Tarrell’s profile describes him as an assistant public defender, although there is no location given. In The Moment is mostly articles and commentary about current legal events, such as this post about Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez. The first post was on September 1, 2006 and is an email apparently sent to somebody at a listserv.
  • Indignant Indigent is described by Eric, its author, as “intended to be a clearinghouse of sorts for current issues in New York criminal defense law, with a focus on the Fourth Department of the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division.” The first post on the “revamped” blog site was in April, 2005.
  • Infinity Ranch “contains the various musings and stray thoughts of one thirty-something West Virginia lawyer” who is an appellate PD. The blog’s subtitle: “Musings about the important things in life - law, politics, music, racing, soccer, etc.” The first post was January 11, 2004 and includes an explanation of the blog’s title. The blog also has a link to the author’s biography.
  • Injustice Anywhere has moved from Texas to Washington, but still blogs about current issues, the job (she is handling juvenile cases) and problems in Texas. The first post came on April 8, 2005, and is simply titled Welcome!
  • Ipse Dixit blogs from Southern California with a combination of celebrity news, football (she’s a big 49ers fan) and occasional posts about the job. A recent entry is about PD humor. Her first post, written while still in law school, is titled Um…What? Her profile says she is a law clerk, and there isn’t any mention of whether or not she passed the bar (a post in August mentions she just finished taking the bar).
  • Out of Atlanta comes Jay, a blog whose sub-title is “Public Defendin’, Sheep Tendin’, Fence Mendin’, Money Lendin’ and Animal Befriendin’.” The Archives go back to October, 2005 and posts cover hobbies, family and, of course, the job. An early post from October 25, 2005 is titled Frustration In Court and includes: “I was introduced to a young woman in the courthouse who learned that I was a public defender. She asked, ’so are you really one of those public defenders who screws his clients, or are you an ok lawyer.’” The post ends thus: END OF RANT.
  • Kansas Defenders is the blog of Randall Hodgkinson and follows “issues and appellate decisions of interest to Kansas defenders.” The blog began in January 2006.
  • Kindness and Justice is written by Pebble Princess of Virginia Beach, Virginia. She passed the bar in October, 2006 and became a PD about a month later. Her first post about getting the job is December 17, 2006.
  • Knit and the City is written by Wendy, a PD in Philadelphia. She says about herself: ” I am a happy lawyer. I am a happy single person. I am clearly not a stereotype. And, I love to knit.” She has many links to knitting blogs, information and podcasts. Her posts are, of course, mostly about knitting, but she sprinkles them with stories about herself and about the job. A recent post about going to NORML’s conference is a must-read. Her first post was August 8, 2005.
  • La Peine Forte et Dure is not a new blog, just one with a new name. It used to be “A Public Defender’s Journal”. It is still written by SWD, a PD in “The New South.” The posting has recently picked up and she has a promotion! Most of the blog is work-related. The first post on December 19, 2005 is called The Beginning.
  • List 29: How I Saved The World (note that the url is “stayoutofmybusiness.blogspot.com”) is by Anatole in “Stinktown, God’s Country.” The first post was February 2, 2005, and is titled “Tolerance Sucks.” In a recent post Anatole writes, “i thought if i tried to write all the crazy things that happen at work, it would be good reading and entertaining, wouldnt mind honing my writing skills, but its boring me talk and what does that say?”
  • Making the Sausage is from part-time public defender from Cincinnati, Ohio who uses the pseudonym Gambrinus Finch. His first post is titled “Welcome: An Explanation” and offers information about the pseudonym and more.
  • Malum In Se is from a public defender who “lives in the South” and posts pretty regularly about the job. He became a public defender in May and was one of the first attorneys in a new public defender’s office. His tagline is “I do my dance to get you bail. I laugh at myself to get you out of jail. I work my magic and often pretend, hoping that the DA will let you out in the end. And when they dont you get mad at me, acting as though I’m the one who wont set you free…”
  • Mark Corwin Bruce - Life and Times began publishing in February, 2002, making it the oldest active PD blog I’ve been able to find. The subtitle of the blog is, “He’s a Public Defender! He’s a poet! He’s a performing singer-songwriter! He’s the single father of a thirteen year old drummer! And he can be pretty funny, sometimes, too. He’s Mark Corwin Bruce. Join him in his journey from the courtroom to the stage.”
  • MissTyrios dot com is written by a woman who describes herself thusly: “I am MissTyrios and I am a public defender. I used to be a Politics and Culture editor over at suicidegirls.com, but this is my attempt to do everything on my own terms.” She writes about current events, as well as PD-related news.
  • North, To Alaska is a recent transplant to Alaska. It is a relatively new blog written by Northern Public Defender, and focuses on some work issues along with his move. The first post was on August 6, 2006.
  • Ruth from New Mexico started Of a Public Defender’s Life in September 2006 and already has some excellent posts on a wide variety of subjects, including the job, current affairs, and even the prairie dog colony near her office. Her post called A Disclaimer was what got me curious about what PDs blog about. In the post she writes, “It occurs to me, that some people who find my blog may be expecting something different than what is here….This is a blog about my life, hence the title, not only my job.” The blog’s first post, on September 17, 2006, also offers an explanation of the title and is called Well, I’m On The Bandwagon!
  • I’m still trying to figure out Overemotional Arguing: A Public Defender In NYC, which I only recently discovered. The blog has a smattering of job-related posts, along with memes and some family events. On August 17, 2005 the author published Starting, a brief explanation of why the blog was started.
  • Another brand new pd writes PD For Life. The author just took the bar exam and will soon start as a public defender in “a small town in Washington State”.
  • Gideon at A Public Defender began posting in October 2004, then went into hibernation on March 10, 2006 with no warning. On October 16, 2006 he suddenly started posting again, then after being “shamed” into ‘fessing up, he wrote this nice post about his break. The Archives only go back to May 2005, but if you open that month’s posts you can click on the previous month at the top of the blog. The very first posts were on October 24, 2004 and are legal disclaimers. In his profile he writes, “Leave comments, though. I love comments. Makes me feel wanted.” Go make him feel wanted.

  • Public Defender Dude is from California. Posts became very sporadic, with a more than 6-month gap, then looked like they were going to pick up, but posts are unfortunately still fairly rare. PD Dude talks about the gap and about posting in a May 4, 2006 post titled Back From Hiatus, Will Post Soon. The first post, on August 3, 2003, has no title and simply begins, “Hello and welcome to my blog.”
  • Public Defenders & Parity is described as “A forum dedicated to the concept of equity in resources and salaries for public defenders.” The blog’s first post was November 11, 2006 and is titled “Introduction“. An excerpt from the first post describes the goal of the blog: “I figured I could either sit around waiting for Godot like I have for years watching nothing change or I could use the blogosphere to speak out. I want to know if it’s just a problem in the Texas county where I work or if it’s a problem in the other counties that have public defender offices. In coming posts I hope to share what I’ve learned from my own research. But more than that, I hope to hear the ideas of others who have given thought to this issue as well as those in other jurisdictions who have wrestled with this issue and what strategies have worked and which ones haven’t.”
  • Rabid Sanity is written by Missoula, Montana public defender Steve Eschenbacher. The blog has been around for some time, but Steve is a relative newcomer to the ranks of the PD.
  • The Rural Bus Route is written by Jay, a public defender in Dickinson, North Dakota. The blog features a lot of photographs and the first post was February 15, 2006.
  • Seth Abramson publishes The Suburban Ecstacies. Seth describes himself as “A fourth-year attorney with the New Hampshire Public Defender, one-time political analyst for Air America Radio, and the co-founder/poetry editor of The New Hampshire Review.” A lot of the posts are about poetry and music, with doses of law and politics thrown in on occasion, and all of the links on the sidebar are poets, books and music. Seth’s first post was May 20, 2005 and is called A Brief History of the Ecstatic.
  • Swan Lake Samba Girl is written by Tonya Plank, an appellate PD in New York City. Tonya has a lot of information about herself in “My Biography” and even has an excerpt from her novel Swallow. She rifts on a variety of cultural and other issues and occasionally writes about the job, but describes the blog as “Tonya’s dance blog.”
  • Of course, I’m not about to forget Tales of a Public Defender Investigator, Californian Sanchovilla’s blog that covers current issues, odd news, investigative tips (his MySpace tips alone are more than worth the visit), and the occasional foray into his love life (such as it is). (Sorry, Sancho, I just couldn’t pass up the dig.) Don Juan Sanchovilla’s first post was on February 10, 2005 and is called A First For A Public Defender Investigator?
  • What Life Is is written by K-Good-Row, and until a recent post she had remained unidentified as a public defender. Most of her posts are about knitting and, as the title suggests, life in general.
  • Woman of the Law is a “fast-talkin’ hell-raisin’ son-of-a-bitch” who writes about the job, current issues and her life. The blog began in May 2004, while WOTL was in law school, and includes her experiences from the first week on the job in October 2005 to the present. The blog contains many observations about providing indigent defense, first through the eyes of an intern, then of a PD.
  • Poverty Lawyer 1 in Dallas describes The Wretched of the Earth as “a blog dedicated to issues affecting the poor and indigent.” The blog offers frequent posts and recently ran an excellent series about probation problems and fixes. The blog’s first post was in August 2005, and on September 7, 2005, after Poverty Lawyer 1 had decided to take a job with the public defender’s office, he posted a short introductory statement called A New Face For The Wretched.

HONORABLE MENTION

  • Indefensible is the blog of David Feige, who has a book by the same name. David is a former PD from the South Bronx, and you probably already know the book Indefensible is his no-holds-barred “day-in-the-life” account of his experiences. His blog covers a wide variety of subjects, including the law, politics, and commentary. Click on the “Indefensible: The Book” subject tag on the PD Stuff sidebar to read more about David’s book.
  • Grits for Breakfast is described as “the private weblog of Scott Henson, a former journalist turned opposition researcher/political consultant, public policy researcher and blogger.” Scott’s posts on criminal justice topics in Texas, especially his posts on jail and probation issues, makes Grits an excellent resource for those in the indigent defense field. In 2004 Grits won the Koufax Award (Wikipedia article) for Best Single Issue Blog. Scott recently left his job with the ACLU and is now “primarily affiliated with” the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition. Scott also has a personal blog called Huevos Rancheros.
  • Criminal Appeal is the blog of Jonathan Soglin, who focuses on “post-conviction practice in the Ninth Circuit and the California state courts.” Jonathan is in what I consider a gray area, as far as public defenders are concerned, because he works at a non-profit providing appellate defense for indigent defendants. Not quite a “public defender” per se, but obviously in basically the same line of work. Jonathan started the blog on January 13, 2004 with a post titled “Getting Started.”
  • Sui Generis-A New York Law Blog is written by former public defender Nicole Black, who now provides “comprehensive legal research and writing services to New York attorneys and beyond on a contract basis.” The blog includes the regular features “Comedic Break” and “Define That Term.” There is also a weekly “NY Legal Blog Round Up.”

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN
(or at least for the moment still available online)
Many of these have recently been removed from the Active PD Blog list because of months of inactivity. Whether they are on hiatus or have stopped completely is unknown. If they resume they’ll go back into the Active list.

  • Indigent Defense was written by “A young, idealistic, and soon-to-be disillusioned public defender.” The blog started December 1, 2005 with this post and ended with Calling It Quits on February 3, 2006.
  • In June 2005 I’m A PD quit her job and moved to New York. There have been 4 posts on the blog since then. Apparently she is now in Connecticut (”with a California bar number”) and thinking about getting back into public defense, although the post that raised that possibility was in August, so who knows? The first post was August 30, 2003 and has no title. Her post of June 13, 2005 tells the story of her departure.
  • Boni et Aequi-A PD Blog has been sporadic in posting, but all posts have been work-related. The author doesn’t have a profile, but does have an excellent blogroll, although a few of the links are outdated. All of the posts are worth a look (or re-look). I’ll update this if there are new posts. The blog’s first post on August 2, 2005 states, “I have decided to seperate the personality blog and the PD blog. Here I will be posting only PD stuff.” I have no idea what or where the personality blog is.
  • Matt at Busted Guitar Strings is a law school graduate in Arkansas who decided not to take the bar and recently landed a job as a capital defense investigator in a PD office. More about the blog, and whether he’ll be posting about his job, as the story develops. Meanwhile, his second post from July 5, 2006 is his response to the question of why he chose not to take the bar.
  • The Misadventures of the Crimson Bear is written by Brian, a California PD. While there are some posts about the job, including this one where a client (who is accused of attacking her previous boyfriend by throwing a knife at him) asks Brian out on a date, a lot of the posts are about his friends. One of the earliest posts is really cool: My New Boss–The Fish. It gave me a flashback to when Country Joe and the Fish played at the University of Washington back in my hippie-wannabe days. The blog began on May 11, 2006.
  • Damned Defenders first posted on March 28, 2006, and the most recent post was April 3, 2006. Many of the posts on the short-lived blog are profiles/stories of clients. The blog author is David Tarrell, who created two other blogs, one of which gets regular updates: In the Moment - A Blog for Warriors. His profile, which is linked to all three blogs, describes him as an assistant public defender.

WORKING ON IT

  • Defending the Public is a relatively new blog written by Salmon Chase, who just took the bar exam. He will be a public defender soon. His first post, in April, is entitled “Recruitment” and decries the awful recruitment policies of public defender offices.
  • Petitioner For Review is a blog written by a public defender intern (although the internship has now ended), who wants to be a public defender. Now.


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