Please bear with me as I tweet this 🧵 on Amtrak’s quiet car (always!) on why @alaa2325 had another lunch-time picket today.

We’ve been out of contract for more than a year—but it’s bigger than that.

There’s an attrition crisis among public & indigent defense. Here’s why.

/1 NYC promised us pay parity with prosecutors & corporation counsel within 4 years. The deadline passed—we still don’t have pay parity.

Attrition is at a level I’ve never seen in 11 years. In criminal, many PDs were assigned 6-8 arraignment shifts in July & August alone.

/2

I’m losing it watching legal “experts” explain what will happen when Trump is arraigned on Tuesday.

Including PBS!

Stop having federal prosecutors describe what will happen in a state court they never stepped foot in!

🧵 Was watching a clip where a federal prosecutor (again, why?) was describing how 45 will be “released on bail.”

We don’t know the exact charges until he’s arraigned—but anyone who understands NY law on nonviolent felonies & bail knows that bail CAN’T be set. He’ll be released

/2

2 in-person jury trials are scheduled for Queens Supreme Court, Crim Term (&/or Queens Crim Ct) for November 4, 2020. Jury notices have already gone out.

Last night we learned a Queens DA intern, who was in Part AP6 all day "observing" &/or in DA office tested positive on 10/23. Queens DA employees also didn't learn until last night, 10/27, that an intern tested positive on 10/23. Management told Queens DA staff that all contact tracing & cleaning had occurred by time of the email, so, conclusions can be drawn about how timely this disclosure was.

/2

Having just hit my 8 year work anniversary as a PD, my response to clients has improved over the years, not worsened.

I've learned a lot from watching other colleagues & from realizing that even if a client is being rude to you, that it's almost never about me.

/1

https://twitter.com/msolurin/status/1320744462004477957

Even when clients are speaking to me in a disrespectful way, I recognize that it's often because they're expressing frustration about the situation they are in.

It's not like they can yell at the judge, or the cops, or the prosecutor.

/2

Spoke w/ a public defender in Nassau today. Nassau Cts still conduct everything remotely; cts only schedule in-person appearances if the accused insists.

+1 to never-ending list of OCA's equal protection violations, treating similarly-situated ppl in NYC differently.

/1 Nassau public defender was floored when I told her that criminal court judges in NYC are randomly cherry-picking cases for ppl at liberty & placing them on the in-person calendar, often giving us very little notice--as little as 5 days notice in my personal experience.

/2

I’m in arraignments today in Queens, and it is even more anxiety-inducing than I could have imagined.

On 3/15, the Office of Court Administration (OCA) ordered courts to start doing virtual video arraignments beginning at 5 pm on 3/16.

/1 NYC courts have only implemented this in part. Here’s how this plays out.

Defense attorney goes into the judge’s robing room next to the arraignment courtroom, where there’s a laptop. Attorney interviews client via video conference.

/2