About the Editor:
Linda Friedman Ramirez currently practices international, federal and state criminal defense in St. Petersburg, Florida. She has emphasized the representation of foreign nationals in civil, criminal and administrative matters since 1981. She has been a member of the CJA Panel in the District of Oregon and is currently a member of the CJA Panel in the Middle District Florida. Before relocating her practice to Florida, she served as a Consulting Attorney to the Mexican Consulate in Portland, Oregon, and in June 2002, received the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association President's Award for Advocacy on behalf of Hispanics in Oregon.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Jorge L. Barón became the Executive Director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) in April 2008, after serving as a staff attorney with the organization since 2006. Jorge is originally from Bogotá, Colombia, and immigrated to the United States in 1986. He graduated from Duke University in 1995, and spent five years working in the film and television industry in Los Angeles, California, before pursuing a legal career. Jorge received his law degree from Yale Law School in 2003. After graduation, he served as a law clerk for Judge Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Seattle. Jorge then served as an Arthur Liman Public Interest Fellow at New Haven Legal Assistance Association in New Haven, Connecticut, before moving back to the Pacific Northwest and starting his position at NWIRP. In 2008, Jorge was appointed by Governor Gregoire to serve on Washington's New Americans Policy Council.
Virginia Benmaman, PhD. is distinguished Professor Emeritus of the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC. She developed the first and only Master of Arts Program in Bilingual Legal Interpreting in 1995 and served as its director until her recent retirement. She has been a federally certified judiciary interpreter since 1981 and certified by the American Translators Association (ATA) for Spanish-English translation since 1988. Virginia has published extensively on interpreter related issues, including the popular Bilingual Dictionary of Criminal Justice Terms (co-authored) and the Bilingual Handbook for Public Safety Professionals. She has presented scholarly papers at national and international conferences and has served as consultant and evaluator on a number of interpreter related projects throughout the U.S.
Thomas K. Coan is a criminal defense lawyer in Portland, Oregon. A 1980 graduate of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, Tom moved to Portland in 1983 and worked as an investigator at the Metropolitan Public Defenders in Portland before and during the time he went to Northwestern School of Law at Lewis and Clark College, where he graduated from in 1988. He has been in private practice since then. Tom is the CJA Panel Representative for the District of Oregon.
James G. Connell, III is currently a partner in Connell, Sheldon & Flood, P.L.C, in Fairfax, Virginia, where he handles criminal defense and habeas corpus cases. He has previously served as an Assistant Public Defender in Fairfax, Virginia, and Research & Writing Specialist at the Federal Public Defender for Nevada. James' publications include co-authoring "Search and Seizure Protections for Undocumented Aliens: The Territoriality and Voluntary Presence Principles of the Forth Amendment" in Georgetown University's American Criminal Law Review. James was editor-in-chief of the William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law. James is the co-editor of Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense (1st ed. 2000). He may be contacted at jconnell@csfdefense.com.
Kari Converse is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is a 1985 graduate of the University of New Mexico School of Law and has worked in criminal defense, prison mental health monitoring, representation of abused children, and international criminal justice, consulting both in Latin America and the United States for international agencies, the Mexican Capital Legal Assistance Program, and the local Mexican Consulate. She is a fluent Spanish speaker and certified interpreter. As a law student, she interned in the student law clinic of the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara.
Tracy Dreispul is an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the Southern District of Florida's Appellate Division. She previously worked as an AFPD in the Middle District of Florida in both the trial and appellate divisions. Prior to beginning her criminal defense career, Tracy worked as a litigation associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York, and as a law clerk to the Honorable William L. Garwood, Senior Circuit Judge, on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Floralynn Einesman is a tenured professor at California Western School of Law where she teaches criminal procedure, evidence and advanced mediation. Floralynn began her legal career as a trial attorney at the Federal Defenders of San Diego. After practicing criminal defense for seven years, Floralynn joined the law firm of Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves and Savitch in San Diego. She left the practice of law to pursue a teaching career, first at University of San Diego School of Law and now at California Western School of Law. Floralynn’s publications include, "Drug Testing Students in California—Does It Violate the State Constitution?" 47 San Diego Law Review (forthcoming Aug. 2010); "Drug Testing of Students: A Legal and Public Health Perspective," 23 Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy 231 (2007)(co-authored); "Training a New Breed of Lawyer: California Western’s Advanced Mediation Program in Juvenile Hall," 39 California Western Law Review 53 (2002) (co-authored); "The Effects of Mediation in a Juvenile Incarceration Facility: Reduction of Violence Through Transformation," 49 Cleveland State Law Review 255 (2001) (co-authored); "Confessions and Culture: The Interaction of Miranda and Diversity," 90 Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 1 (1999); "Vampires Among Us: Does a Grand Jury Subpoena for Blood Violate the Fourth Amendment?" 22 American Journal of Criminal Law 327 and "How Long Is Too Long? When Pretrial Detention Violates Dues Process," 40 Tennessee Law Review 1 (1993). She can be reached at fle@cwsl.edu.
Jack Fernandez is a partner at Zuckerman Spaeder, Tampa, Florida and concentrates his practice on state and federal white collar criminal defense and False Claims Act litigation, principally for clients in the health care industry who confront allegations of fraud. His clients range from Fortune 500 companies to health care providers to a Middle Eastern country to individual corporate officers and directors. Before entering private practice, Mr. Fernandez served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida, where he investigated, tried, and argued appeals in numerous complex federal cases, including health care fraud, the Federal False Claims Act (qui tam), defense contractor fraud, tax fraud, securities fraud, satellite signal piracy, and intellectual property cases. Following law school he served as a law clerk for the Honorable J. Dickson Phillips of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Mr. Fernandez was a naval aviator, flying the F-14 Tomcat from the aircraft carrier USS Independence. He flew combat missions in support of U.S. Army and Marine Corps expeditionary forces, and was awarded both the Navy and Armed Forces Expeditionary Medals.
Isabel Framer is an Oregon and Tennessee State Court Certified Judiciary Interpreter residing in Ohio. She is a national policy consultant on interpreters related to access to justice in legal settings. She provides continuing legal education to judges and attorneys and training to law enforcement. Isabel has served as an expert and expert witness throughout the United States on cases that have been successfully reversed, dismissed or resulted in a lesser charge due to improper interpreter procedures. Among other boards and committees, she served as chair of the National Association of Judiciary Interpreters and Translators and is currently serving on the Supreme Court of Ohio's Advisory Committee on Interpreter Services and Governor Ted Strickland's Ohio Judicial Appointment Recommendation Panel and the Ohio Commission on Hispanic/Latino Affairs.
Tova Indritz is a criminal defense lawyer in private practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico, handling criminal trials, appeals, and post-conviction matters in federal, state, and occasionally Indian tribal courts. She is a national expert regarding defense counsel's obligation to advise on immigration consequences of criminal convictions and orally argued on behalf of the amicus curiae in the New Mexico Supreme Court in State v. Paredez, 101 P.3d 799 (N.M.2004), cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in Padilla v. Kentucky. She practices in the area of immigration consequences of criminal convictions, both by advising noncitizen clients and their lawyers considering resolution of criminal cases, and by representing clients in post-conviction litigation when there has been a failure to consider immigration consequences. She was awarded the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association's Driscoll Award for Outstanding Lawyer of the Year, the Albuquerque Bar Association's Lawyer of the Year Award, and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers' (NACDL) President's Distinguished Service Award. She is included in the Best Lawyers in America. Tova has testified on various criminal justice issues before the U.S. House and Senate, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the Committee to Review the Criminal Justice Act. She is currently co-chair of NACDL's Immigration Committee and chair of its Native American Justice Committee; she has also been co-chair of NACDL's Indigent Defense Committee. She is a graduate of Yale Law School. She is currently on the board of the New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. Prior to entering private practice in 1995, she was the Federal Public Defender for the District of New Mexico. Her contact information is 2040 Fourth Street, NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87102, (505) 242-4003.
Ashish S. Joshi is a shareholder attorney with Lorandos Joshi. A trial lawyer, his practice focuses on complex commercial litigation, international litigation and white-collar criminal defense. He is admitted to the Supreme Court of the United States, the District of Columbia, the state bars of New York and Michigan and the bar in Gujarat, India. He is an author of several articles on the topics of internal investigations, international anti-bribery investigations and prosecutions, white collar defense strategies, and complex commercial litigation.
Shujaat Khan is a law student at Stetson University College of Law and a graduate of Purdue University. He is a member of the Moot Court Board, which is a part of Stetson's nationally recognized advocacy board. He wrote "U.S. Trial Exposes Guyana's Internal Political Conflicts and International Enforcement Issues" for the International Enforcement Law Reporter in December 2009. He has worked with lawyers in both the United States and abroad. Shujaat is trilingual in English, Hindi, and Urdu; he is proficient in Arabic and can read and write in Farsi. He maintains a keen interest in criminal and international law and anticipates practicing in these areas upon graduation.
Kathlyn M. Mackovjak is a supervising immigration attorney with Gulfcoast Legal Services, a private non-profit legal aid organization based in St. Petersburg, Florida. She is one of the few attorneys in the Tampa Bay area to work on human trafficking cases as it pertains to the victims for immigration relief. She is a member of the Clearwater Area Human Trafficking Task Force and regularly trains law enforcement and the community at large on the sensitive issues surrounding survivors of human trafficking. She works with victims of domestic violence, rape and torture and represents these survivors in their immigration proceedings, including asylum claims. She is a coordinator and adjunct professor for the Immigrant Rights Law Clinic her organization runs in conjunction with Stetson Law School in Gulfport, Florida.
Maria Cecilia Marty has a Masters Degree in Translation & Interpretation, Spanish, from the Monterey Institute of International Studies and is a Certified Federal Interpreter. She was first Administrative Hearing Certified in the state of California, then Accredited English into Spanish by the American Translators Association before becoming Federally Certified. She interprets for U.S. district courts in criminal proceedings, most recently in Washington D.C., and has substantial experience in preparing Spanish language forensic recording transcripts. She served as an expert witness in the Daytona Beach, Florida, Alfonso case, which provided legislators a basis for a law requiring that all interpreters in the State of Florida be Consortium certified. She also serves as an expert witness in matters of interpretation and translation. She has taught Sight Translation and Consecutive Interpretation for the Bilingual Legal Masters Program at the University of Charleston in Charleston, SC as well as continuing education courses for the University of South Florida and Florida International University. She presents workshops for the ATA Continuing Education Professional Series and holds seminars and workshops to help prepare students for the Consortium and Federal Court Interpreting Certification Exams. She can be reached at fittservices@ureach.com; profesora.marty@sprint.blackberry.net or at (787) 536-0101. If more current contact information is needed, please check the ATA website Directory at atanet.org or contact the Administrative Office of the US Courts in Washington, D.C.
Doug Passon is a graduate of Indiana University and Washington University School of Law and an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the District of Arizona. He has published several criminal law related articles, which have appeared in national publications such as the Washington University Law Quarterly, The Champion, and the Liberty Legend. Doug is also an award-winning documentary film maker. For the last several years, he has been combining his passion for filmmaking with his practice of law by producing short documentaries for use as mitigation at sentencing. He has taught lawyers across the country how to effectively integrate videos and other powerful visuals into their sentencing practice.
Alison Dundes Renteln Ph.D., J.D. is a professor of political science and anthropology at the University of Southern California, where she is also vice-chair of Political Science. Her books include Cultural Law, International Comparative and Indigenous (Cambridge, 2010) co-edited with James A.R. Nafziger and Robert Kirkwood Paterson, Multicultural Jurisprudence: Comparative Perspectives on the Cultural Defense, co-edited with Marie-Claire Foblets (Oxford: Hart, 2009), The Cultural Defense (Oxford, 2004), Folk Law, co-edited with the late Alan Dundes (University of Wisconsin, 1995), and International Human Rights: Universalism Versus Relativism (Sage, 1990). Her articles on cultural defense include: "The Importance of Culture for the Justice System" and "When Westerners Run Afoul of the Law in other Countries" Judicature, 92, (5) (2009), and "The Use and Abuse of the Cultural Defense." Canadian Journal of Law and Society, 20 (1) (2005), 47-67. Professor Renteln received the 2005 USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching (campus-wide) and the 2006 Phi Kappa Phi Award for Creativity in Research for The Cultural Defense.
Sonya Rudenstine is a solo practitioner in Gainesville, Florida, specializing in criminal appellate advocacy in both state and federal court. Prior to opening her own practice, she represented death row inmates in post-conviction and on direct appeal as a staff attorney for the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama and for the Center for Death Penalty Litigation in Durham, North Carolina. Ms. Rudenstine graduated from New York University School of Law in 1998. She then served for a year as a law clerk for the Honorable Alan B. Handler of the New Jersey Supreme Court and, simultaneously, as the Death Penalty Clerk for the entire court. She has written extensively in the area of race and the law.
Jon M. Sands is the Federal Public Defender for the District of Arizona. He serves as the chair of the Federal Public Defender Guidelines Committee, which has statutory authority to advise and consult the United States Sentencing Commission. He is also an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law. Jon graduated from Yale with honors in 1979 and from the University of California, Davis, School of Law in 1984. He served as editor-in-chief of the law review. From 1984-85, he clerked for the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was an associate at Meyer Hendricks from 1985 until 1987 and was an Assistant Federal Public Defender from 1987 until 2004, when he was appointed to his present position. His numerous publications include "Indian Jurisdiction in Federal Court" in Defending a Federal Criminal Case.
Alina M. Shell is a Research and Writing Specialist with the Federal Public Defender's Officer for the District of Nevada. She received both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
George Scott is a retired IRS criminal investigations manager, currently working as a private investigator in Tampa, Florida and as a consultant to several tax firms in Tampa and across the United States. He specializes in white collar criminal investigations such as tax fraud, bank fraud, and health care fraud, as well as complex drug investigations. His experience in locating witnesses and conducting interviews and analyzing voluminous documents has been invaluable in these types of cases, as well as other cases, including murder, investor fraud, etc. His expertise was particularly helpful in identifying and locating witnesses and key defense documents in Colombia, that could subsequently be used in federal court.
Azadeh Shahshahani is the Director of the National Security/ Immigrants' Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. The project is aimed at bringing Georgia and its localities into compliance with international human rights and constitutional standards in treatment of refugee and immigrant communities, including immigrant detainees. Azadeh previously served as Interim Legal Director for the ACLU of Georgia. Before her move to Atlanta, she worked with the ACLU of North Carolina as Muslim/Middle Eastern Community Outreach Coordinator. In that capacity, she initiated a statewide campaign against racial profiling and coordinated a CLE seminar to train attorneys to represent Muslim and Middle Eastern clients facing human rights violations. Azadeh is a 2004 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, where she served as article editor for The Michigan Journal of International Law. While in law school, Azadeh completed a fellowship with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Washington, DC. Azadeh currently serves as the Chair of Georgia Detention Watch; and Vice Chair of Refugee Women's Network. Azadeh is also one of the Founders of Human Rights Atlanta and currently serves on its Coordinating Council. Azadeh was born in Iran and moved to the United States at age sixteen. She is the recipient of the University of Georgia Law School 2009 Equal Justice Foundation Public Interest Practitioner Award.
Marcia G. Shein is a nationally recognized attorney in matters of federal plea, sentencing mitigation, appellate and post-conviction litigation. She has consulted with some of the best federal criminal defense attorneys in the nation on these matters as well as at trial to protect case issues for sentencing and appeal should the client be convicted. She has written many articles for law journals, spoken before national law conventions on sentencing mitigation in complex drug and white collar cases, and has appeared on television. She is a life member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and member of the executive board of the Georgia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Her articles have appeared in publications such as The Champion, The Federal Lawyer, and The Georgia Defender on topics such as the Federal Sentencing Guidelines and the crack cocaine sentencing disparity, an issue she has been fighting for 20 years. She is the editor and author of a self-help manual for inmates. She has represented clients from Alaska to Maine and beyond U.S. borders in complicated federal criminal cases. Her national office is located at 2392 North Decatur Road, Decatur, GA 30033. She can be reached at 404-633-3797, www.federalcriminallawcenter.com and www.federalappealslawyer.com
Fredilyn Sison is an honors grad of Cornell University and New York University School of Law. Currently an Assistant Federal Defender at the Federal Defenders of Western North Carolina in Asheville, she has served as an AFD in the Districts of Idaho, Nebraska, and Nevada, as well as visiting counsel at the Defender Training Branch and at the U.S. Sentencing Commission in Washington, D.C. She has authored articles on jury selection, cross examination and the effects of incarceration on families for national journals. She is on the faculty of various trial and sentencing advocacy programs. She is a certified practitioner in psychodrama and sociometry, and her interests include running, reading, piano, Improv and Playback Theater. Fredi may be reached at Fredilyn_Sison@fd.org.
Cheryl D. Stein is a sole practitioner in Washington, D.C., with more than 27 years of experience in criminal defense. She is a graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School. She has taught at the Harvard Law School intensive trial advocacy workshop and, from 2004 through 2007, was the legal columnist for Capital Community News. Op-ed pieces by Ms. Stein have been published in the Washington Times and on the law.com website. An active participant on the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers listserv, she also serves on the association's Committee on Rules of Procedure. She can be contacted through her website at www.cdstein.com or at 202-388-4682.
Rene L. Valladares was born and raised in Nicaragua. He is the chief of the trial and appellate divisions, Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Nevada. Prior to that, he was an associate at Sheppard & White in Jacksonville, Florida. Rene is board certified in Criminal Trial Advocacy by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He has an L.L.M. in International Law from the University of Miami. Rene"s publications include co-authoring "Search and Seizures Protections for Undocumented Aliens: The Territoriality and Voluntary Presence Principles of the Fourth Amendment" in Georgetown University's American Criminal Law Review. Rene was the co-editor of Cultural Issues in Criminal Defense (1st ed. 2000). He may be reached at Rene_Valladares@fd.org.
Margaret van Naerssen, has a Ph.D. in applied linguistics/language acquisition (University of Southern California) and coordinates graduate-level teacher training in cultural and linguistic diversity at Immaculata University in Pennsylvania. She is also occasionally an English language specialist overseas with the U.S. Department of State. Since 1997 she's done expert consultant/witness work in forensic linguistics at the federal and state level, in criminal and civil cases involving murder, rape, drugs, money laundering, robbery, fraud, contract and plain language guidelines, slander, medical malpractice, and interpreting issues. Most cases have involved non-native speakers of English. She has given presentations on forensic linguistics at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. and at the FBI Academy as well as at professional conferences and has published in the area of language proficiency and evidence. She may be reached at margaret.vannaerssen@gmail.com
Mark Warren, a human rights researcher and legal consultant based in Ottawa, Canada, specializes in the application of international law to domestic criminal cases. He is the author of several instruction manuals for consular officers and for attorneys representing foreign nationals facing capital charges. His other recent publications include articles in the Hofstra Law Review and the William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal. Mark was a member of Mexico's legal team in its successful lawsuit against the United States at the International Court of Justice, which addressed consular rights violations in the cases of over 50 death-sentenced Mexican nationals. Mark can be reached at: aiwarren@yahoo.com
Janet Weinstein is a tenured Professor of Law at California Western School of Law in San Diego. She received her B.A. from U.C.L.A. and her J.D. from the University of San Diego. She has been teaching in an interdisciplinary program in child welfare since 1988, and currently teaches an interdisciplinary course in community organizing and problem solving. She is the Director of the JD/MSW Program at California Western as well as the Director of the Clinical Internship Program. Her scholarship is concentrated on legal education, child welfare, and on how knowledge about the brain interacts with the law.
Ricardo Weinstein is a forensic neuropsychologist. He is an expert in cultural issues and cultural competent comprehensive evaluations of brain functioning. He has qualified as an expert witness in federal courts and multiple states. Presently his practice is focused on death penalty cases at pretrial and post-conviction phases. He has qualified as an expert in mental retardation and has performed numerous evaluation post Atkins decision. Because he is bilingual and bicultural, he works with many Spanish speaking criminal defendants.
Brenda Weksler was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and moved to the United States with her family at age 14. She has degrees in English and philosophy from the University of Nevada and is graduated from the Boyd School of Law in 1999. She served as a law clerk to Judge Kathy Hardcastle, Eight Judicial District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada. She has been an Assistant Federal Public Defender in Las Vegas, Nevada since 2003, where she has been practicing as a trial attorney defending individuals charged with criminal federal offenses.
