A Relentless Jailhouse Lawyer Propels a Case to the Supreme Court

[Elderberry]

NY Times by Adam Liptak 8/5/2019

“For 23 years, I was a jailhouse lawyer,” said Calvin Duncan, a former inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola. “That was my assigned job.”

He had a 10th-grade education, and he was serving a life sentence for murder. The prison paid him 20 cents an hour to help his fellow prisoners with their cases.

He got good at it, and he used his increasingly formidable legal skills to help free several inmates. He knew how to spot a promising legal issue, and he was relentless. Seasoned lawyers sought his advice.

One issue in particular consumed Mr. Duncan. He could not understand how a Louisiana law that allowed non-unanimous juries in criminal cases could be constitutional. He would not let it go, working on about two dozen failed attempts to persuade the Supreme Court to address the issue.

The justices finally agreed in March to decide the question. They will hear arguments in the case, Ramos v. Louisiana, No. 18-5924, on the first day of their new term, on Oct. 7.

G. Ben Cohen, the lawyer who filed the petition in the latest case and many others, said Mr. Duncan had played a crucial role in identifying, shepherding and presenting the cases.

“From well before I was involved,” Mr. Cohen said, “Calvin understood that this was a winning legal issue — how to frame it, raise it and challenge the non-unanimous law.”

“The lessons that Calvin taught me were not just about the law,” Mr. Cohen said. “They were about not giving up.”

Emily Maw, a lawyer with Innocence Project New Orleans, said Mr. Duncan was persistence personified.

More: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/05/us/politics/supreme-court-nonunanimous-juries.html

[sneakypete]

Good for him!

Law is too important to leave to the professionals.

[Bill Cipher]

Good for him!

Law is too important to leave to the professionals.

Uh, he is a professional.  He’s been doing it for 23 years.

[sneakypete]

Uh, he is a professional. 

@Bill Cipher

Really? Which law school did he graduate from and in what state is he legally allowed to practice law?

[Elderberry]

He never claimed to be a "Lawyer", only a "Jailhouse Lawyer".

Jailhouse lawyer is a colloquial term in North American English to refer to an inmate in a jail or other prison who, though usually never having practiced law nor having any formal legal training, informally assists other inmates in legal matters relating to their sentence (e.g. appeal of their sentence, pardons, stays of execution, etc.) or to their conditions in prison. Sometimes, he or she also assists other inmates in civil matters of a legal nature. The ability that inmates have to help other illiterate inmates file petition for post conviction relief was first recognized in Johnson v. Avery.

[Elderberry]

Don't confuse professionals with licensed professionals.

10 things that define a true professional: https://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10-things/10-things-that-define-a-true-professional/

[jpsb]

Don't confuse professionals with licensed professionals.

 

[Bill Cipher]

@Bill Cipher

Really? Which law school did he graduate from and in what state is he legally allowed to practice law?

Clearly he’s allowed to practice law in the State of Louisiana, and before the US Supreme Court. 

[Elderberry]

Clear as Mud. I can't see where he has "Practiced Law" anywhere, or plans to in the future.

[Hoodat]

@Bill Cipher

Really? Which law school did he graduate from?

The same one as Clarence Darrow, Daniel Webster, and Chief Justice John Marshall.

[thackney]

Clearly he’s allowed to practice law in the State of Louisiana, and before the US Supreme Court.

G. Ben Cohen, the lawyer who filed the petition in the latest case and many others, said Mr. Duncan had played a crucial role in identifying, shepherding and presenting the cases.

Is Duncan practicing law or is he just an adviser to Cohen who is practicing law?