Opinion

Browning v. State

  • 57 Ala. App. 217
  • 326 So. 2d 778
  • 1975 Ala. Crim. App. LEXIS 1260
Court
Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama
Filed
Dec 16, 1975
Status
Published
Author
Cates
On the bench
Bowen W. Simmons
Cited by
10 cases
Authority
More cited than 8.4%

The opinion

CATES, Presiding Judge

(concurring) :

In deference to Judge DeCarlo’s dissent, I have reexamined the original record in Browning v. State, 51 Ala.App. 632 , 288 So.2d 170 . Judge Simmons shows — as the record before Judge Clark did not — that Mr. Shumaker was appointed to “a dock brief” for a single occasion, i. e., arraignment which occurred September 13, 1972.

Being under this limitation, Mr. Shumaker was thereafter naturally under no duty to Browning. Indeed, under the canons of ethics, he could run afoul of the prohibitions against officiously intermeddling in the defense of a case in which another lawyer was already ostensibly employed.

Perhaps, pre-appeal appointments of counsel for indigents ought, by rule, all *221 be made of indeterminate and continuing duration rather than being ad hoc ad hodiem. See ARAP Rule 24(b)(1) and ABA Crim. Justice Standards, Providing Defense Services, § 5.2.

Judge Clark did not (and could not) have the benefit of the subsequent testimony of Mr. Shumaker at the coram nobis hearing. Cases such as this are troublesome: vide Davis v. State, 292 Ala. 210 , 291 So.2d 346 ; Faretta v. California, 422 U.S. 806 , 95 S.Ct. 2525 , 45 L.Ed.2d 562 (June 30, 1975).

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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