In 1963, the landmark Supreme Court case, Gideon v. Wainwright, established it is a fundamental 6th Amendment right for indigent defendants to be furnished counsel at state expense.

A new study published by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, of which I am a member, has shown that, 50 years later, Gideon’s promise — that all defendants receive equal justice under the law — is largely hollow. This is the first in a series of posts that will attempt to show, using information from that study, why this is so.

For one thing, court-appointed defense attorneys receive perhaps a quarter of their ordinary hourly rates to defend indigent clients, often with a cap on the maximum fee they may recover that is frequently even a lesser fraction of their flat fees.

Although I’ve never put less effort into a pro bono (free) case than into my highest-paying case, for other lawyers with greater stressors in their lives, it may be readily apparent that a lawyer who charges $250-$400 an hour may indeed choose to put fewer hours into a court-appointed case that pays $65 an hour. No, it isn’t right.

But, want to know something that isn’t even righter? In Detroit, this study reveals, a court-appointed lawyer who pleads his client guilty gets paid $200 more than a lawyer who gets his client a dismissal.

Can you hear Mr. Gideon spinning?

There are only three men on death row in my home state. That’s about three too many, and it’s not much of a row, as rows go — more likely it should be called a triangle. The Colorado Department of Corrections likes to call it a Death Row Roster, as if it were a baseball lineup.

On deck is Nathan Dunlap, who I believe bats right with the needle. We killed our first convicted murderer in 1890, when we hanged Noverto Griego. I believe we hanged forty-four more, before we switched to gas, then thirty-two went to the chamber until the United States Supreme Court said capital punishment just didn’t seem right anymore. But vengeance won’t be stayed for long in this country, and four years later state executioners were back in business. A booming business, some places, but we’ve only killed one more in Colorado since 1976. I was pleased not to be a resident of this state, when in 1997 it pumped poison into the veins of someone who was.

I am a resident of this great state now, as is Nathan Dunlap, who this week lost his last appeal to escape the death penalty, and instead spend his probably many, many days — he is thirty-eight — in prison with no possibility of parole.

A Denver Post reporter wrote that “Death stepped closer to Nathan Dunlap on Tuesday…”

Death stepped closer to me, too, and to every Colorado resident capable of responsibility for what our government does in our name. In my name and yours, the state of Colorado may soon do to Nathan Dunlap what he did in 1993 to others: kill another human being, though in our case, in cold blood chilled by twenty years of contemplating sticking a needle in his arm.

Twenty years is a long time to think about killing a man. Arapahoe County District Attorney George Brauchler says he remains committed to seeking execution for Dunlap.  A notable commitment, considering that when Nathan Dunlap committed his crimes, Mr. Brauchler was still in law school. He must have somehow missed Les Misérables, in any of its forms.

It may be that the one person who can take this tired and rancid cup of death from our hands is John Hickenlooper, by his power of clemency as Governor. He’s a Democrat, and a Quaker, and a politician. And while it’s common for a Democrat or a Quaker to resist the death penalty, it is far less common for a politician to put his humanity before his re-election prospects.

My hope is that it is a rare politician who now resides in the governor’s mansion.

If only for my sake, and yours.

From time to time I’m privileged to do some volunteer lawyering for American Indians who get rousted by the police for daring to express a little freedom of speech.

So I get a little riled every now and then when I see somebody, or some group of somebodies, still thinking Custer had the right idea about these very first Americans. Last Thursday they held some sort of symposium in Washington, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the subject of the local football team came up.

What is the name of that Washington team again? The Washington Niggers? The Spics? The Kikes? Something like that. Oh, yeah: the Redskins.

If the team indeed carried one of those first three names, do you think  there’d be some kind of general expression of dissatisfaction about it? Yet we’ve been calling that team by a racist epithet for eighty years.

Ben Nighthorse Campbell, who used to be a United States senator from my state, told the symposium he’d prefer not to have Indians described as savages, squaws, bucks, or redskins. I wonder why. Somebody else who ought to wonder why — current Redskins owner Dan Snyder — was invited to the symposium, but for some reason didn’t show.

A writer for The Nation magazine caricatured Snyder as ham-fisted and rabbit eared. I’m not sure that’s fair to rabbits.

If Snyder would only talk to me — I don’t know why he hasn’t called back — I have what I think is the perfect solution to his little public relations problem. He could of course choose a new name that would actually honor Indians, but the problem with that is the local tribe was the Piscataways, and the Piscataways historically only sought one thing in life: peace. Nobody wants that in football. Plus, somebody’s bound to notice that name is awfully close to Piss-That-Aways.

So Snyder should rather pick a name that honors not the past, but the present, as well as a name that recognizes the major business done in Washington, which is of course government, and the fine men and women of the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. A name that epitomizes their work.

The perfect name? The Washington Pickpockets.

Hey — that’s even a football term.

I suppose it’s a paradox, but the only way to achieve any real gun management in my state is to find a legislator who knows how to pull a trigger.

No matter how many children die, no matter how many Presidents of the United States, the charge surely won’t be led by a Republican. It won’t be led by a Democrat, either, not in Colorado.

There is a straightforward response to our dead children, our dead Presidents. Guns that can be used as personal weapons of mass destruction should be banned for personal use. They should not be manufactured for personal use. They should not be sold for personal use. Period. A ban on such weapons is not a Second Amendment issue, any more than are laws that prevent private citizens from buying and deploying Abrams tanks, or cruise missiles.

Yet our Colorado Democrats, apparently still afraid the NRA will paint targets on their yellow backs, avoid the straightforward. Instead they propose new laws that say, you can kill our children, you can kill our Presidents, you just have to pay a price. The cost of doing business. If you manufacture this kind of gun, the proposed laws say, if you sell it, you will be legally liable if the gun is used for its intended purpose — that is, to kill people.

Never mind that this law can’t pass Constitutional muster, and that these Democrats know it. It betrays a timid response from lawmakers who talk big about making gun manufacturers and dealers responsible, while ducking their own responsibility to stand up to the gun lobby and say plainly: no more Columbines, no more Littletons, no more Sandy Hooks.

And that’s like bringing a knife to a gun fight.

It just don’t cut it.

Today, right now, I can go to a (very) popular web site — whose name I won’t mention because I hope any crazy who might read this is too stupid to find it on their own — and buy the following items:

Fs: Two (2) – Ar 15′S – One (1) .22 Lr And One (1) .223/5.56 Nato
$2200
ONE (1) – AMERICAN MADE ATI OMNI COMPLETE, MULTI C…
FORT COLLINS

Fs/Ft: Steyr Mannlicher Hs 50 Cal . Tricked
$5500
STEYR MANNLICHER HS. 50 SINGLE SHOT LONG RANGE COM…
DENVER

Fs/Ft: Colt Python 6″ Blued
$1
FOR SALE OR TRADE: VERY NICE COLT PYTHON. 6″ BLU…
DENVER

Fs: 200 Rounds Federal 9Mm
$80
I HAVE TWO HUNDRED ROUNDS OF FEDERAL 9MM IN FIFTY …
FORT COLLINS

Ft: I Am Looking To Trade My Professional Irrigation And Fence Services For Firearms. Preferable Ar15, Ak, Handguns Etc To.
Offer
I OWN A BUSINESS IN COLORADO SPRINGS, WE INSTALL, …
COLORADO SPRINGS

Fs: Tapco Mag Gen 2 30Rd Black – Ar-15
$50
NEW IN BAG 50.00 EA …
COLORADO SPRINGS

Fs/Ft: Derringer .32
$400
I HAVE A DERRINGER MODEL .32 PISTOL, IT COMES WITH…
COLORADO SPRINGS

Ft: Looking To Trade My Professional Fence And Irrigation Services For Ar-15, And Handguns.
Offer
I OWN A BUSINESS IN COLORADO SPRINGS, WE INSTALL, …
COLORADO SPRINGS

Fs: Arsenal Saiga Sgl21-61 762X39 16″ Ak47
$1900
COMES WITH 4 MAGS, ONE BLACK 5 ROUND, TWO FLAT DAR…
COLORADO

Fs: New!! Ak 47 Chinese 30 Round Magazines, Chinese 75 Round Drums
$1
AK 47 CHINESE 30 ROUND MAGAZINES (10 AVAILABLE) $5…
COLORADO

Fs: Bushmaster Xm-15 E2S Great Price
$1650
LOWER PRICE THAN ANY YOU WILL FIND AT THE GUN SHOW…
COLORADO SPRINGS

Fs: S&W Pistol Scope
$100
1.5-6X28 SMITH AND WESSON PISTOL SCOPE. SOLD GUN A…
FORT COLLINS

Fs: Mini 14 40Rd Mag
$40
NO NAME 40RD MAG FOR MINI 14. $40 CALL 970-308-037…
FORT COLLINS

Fs/Ft: Two S&W 59 Series-One Browning Hi Power Mag
$40
TWO S&W 59 SERIES 15 ROUND STAINLESS MAGS (MARKED …
COLORADO SPRINGS

Fs/Ft: *Rare* 1952 Colombian Mauser In 30-06
$300
I HAVE A BEAUTIFUL AND RARE COLOMBIAN MAUSER CHAMB…
FORT COLLINS

Fs: Lot Of 10 Ar 15 223/5.56 Style 30 Round Magazines
$200
AR 15 223/5.56 STYLE 30 ROUND MAGAZINES SLIGHTLY U…
COLORADO SPRINGS

Fs: Kel-Tec Su16B .223
$700
THIS IS THE “BRAVO” MODEL OF THE SU16 PISTON DRIVE…
COLORADO

Ft: Quality Tattoos For Barter
Offer
I HAVE MY SERVICES TO OFFER, CLEAN QUALITY TATTO…
FORT COLLINS

Fs: 44 S&W Special Ctg
$750
VERY NICE 44 SMITH & WESSON I HAVE OWNED SINCE NEW…
DENVER

Fs: Pmc Xtac 5.56Mm 62Grain M855

That’s actually just one page of what I can buy today. There are 344 more pages of this stuff. And that’s just in Colorado. And I can buy it without a background check, without the slightest paper trail.

And then? And then I can go to the movies.