[blindlaw] Is blindness ever consitter an issue in court

[Daniel McBride]

Robert:

In all cases, civil and criminal, opposing counsel owes us nothing more as
blind attorneys than they otherwise owe a sighted attorney.

As of January 1, 2014, the recently amended discovery statute, Article 39.14
Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, takes effect.  Under this statute, the
State is going to be obligated to very broad and significant requirements
for discovery upon proper request by Defense Counsel.  If requested, the
State need do nothing more than provide same to Defense Counsel, blind or
not.

>From that point, the central issue is that of the rights of the Citizen
Accused; most particularly, the right not only to counsel, but, the right to
Effective Assistance of counsel.  As long as a blind attorney insists that
his client receives Effective Assistance, the problem then becomes that of
the Judge hearing the case.

When I'm in trial, the Judge can give me all damned day to provide me
opportunity to scrutinize any offered evidence, or the Judge can risk
reversal for denying the Citizen Accused his right to Effective Assistance.

This right is not ours as blind attorneys, rather, the right is that of the
Citizen Accused.

This is probably not so in civil cases to the extent of criminal cases, but
I cannot speak to the civil side definitively.

The first time I had this problem during a jury trial, I was pretty much
telling the Judge how the cow would chew the cabbage.  After word got out in
the courthouse, the State did all it could, in future trials with me, to
pave this road prior to jury selection.  A blind criminal defense attorney
can cause the Court major headaches, regarding proper review of offered
evidence and the time required to review it, in pursuing his client's right
to Effective Assistance.  That is to say that the Court owes me nothing due
to being blind, but the Court sure as hell cannot deprive my criminally
accused client of effective assistance of counsel.

Always good to hear from you my friend.

Daniel McBride
Fort Worth, Texas

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Dittman,
Robert
Sent: Wednesday, July 10, 2013 7:20 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Cc: Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Is blindness ever consitter an issue in court

I agree with your point that the state most likely doesn't have to do
anything to accommodate the defense attorney. However, my point was that in
many cases if the attorney is collegial the district attorney or assistant
district attorney will accommodate the defense attorney. Or, at least this
is been my experience practicing in San Antonio Texas. I guess I have been
lucky. V

Robert D. Dittman, ESQ.
Attorney and Counselor at Law
 Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 10, 2013, at 18:38, "Parnell Diggs" <parnell at sccoast.net> wrote:

> Hello legal professionals,
> The state probably doesn't have to do anything to accommodate the blind
defense attorney. The defense attorney needs to ask a  cited person to
describe the photos to him and determine whether the person depicted therein
is indeed the defendant.
> 
> At trial, I would suggest that the defense attorney asked the state to
present the photos to the defense counsel table just as they would if the
defense attorney were sighted. On many occasions, I have made decisions
about whether to object to photos I could not see, and the court often has
overruled my objections, just as it would with a sighted attorney. In the
meantime, the defense attorney may want to come up with an explanation as to
why the defendant is depicted in the photographs.
> 
> Parnell Diggs, Esq.
> President
> National Federation of the Blind
> of South Carolina
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
> On Jul 10, 2013, at 7:12 PM, pattichang at att.net wrote:
> 
>> I am blind and have served in Illinois on a jury. There was pictorial
evidence. There were also diagrams of the location. The judge asked and I
think this is appropriate for most situations that both attorneys verbally
describe what they were pointing at and reference verbally anything that
related to the evidence. I would also note that most states require a
witness to describe what is in the pictures in order to lay a proper
foundation.
>> 
>> 
>> Patti S. Gregory-Chang
>> NFBI President
>> NFB Scholarship Comm. Chair
>> Sent from my iPhone
>> 
>> On Jul 10, 2013, at 6:05 PM, "RJ Sandefur"
<joltingjacksandefur at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> John Smith is a blind defence aturney. He is defending Mike shafer 
>>> on murder 1 charges. The state has photos of the defendant at the 
>>> crime seen. What should the state do taking into consitteration the 
>>> defence lawyer is blind and is unable to see the pictures? RJ 
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