US Judge orders a retrial after disastrous defense by a lawyer who interviewed his client for only 5 minutes before a trial.
A young lawyer, called in April 2005, screwed up the defense so badly that the judge, of his own motion - a much rarer thing in the US than the UK, ordered a new trial. The young lawyer, a Mr Christopher of the Florida Bar - a Solicitor-Inadequate?, made such a hash of it that the Defendant's constitutional right to a fair and impartial trial was fatally compromised. Judge William Fuente said that 'defense attorney Byron T. Christopher "did not render effective assistance" and didn't adequately prepare for trial'. Juror Delores S. McCain, an alternate juror at Rolon's trial, said : "Everyone on the jury agreed ... We were saying, 'I hope this guy wasn't getting paid much. It was sad. I think the guy's guilty, but he didn't get a good defense.' "
Mr Christopher began work as an assistant for the Hillsborough state attorney in April 2005 but was no longer working for him by October 2005 for unknown reasons. Incompetence maybe?
Sadly, while we in the UK slave to be admitted and gain a practice, in the US the incompetent do seem to be able to wreak havoc more easily.
Ouch.
After reading the article, I googled Christopher. Directly below the link to your blog was his brother's obituary, dated November 7, 2008. I'm not a lawyer, and I don't know that Christopher isn't incompetent under normal circumstances, but I don't think he should have been working a murder defense this soon after his brother's death.