David A. Brener
My blogs
Blogs I follow
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Law |
| Occupation | Criminal Defense Attorney |
| Location | Fort Myers, Florida, United States |
| Introduction | Fort Myers Criminal Defense Attorney Serving All of Southwest Florida |
| Interests | New Lawyer Appointed on Day Care Center Murder Case Last week, a Circuit Court Judge in Lee County granted defendant Robert Dunn's Motion to Dismiss Counsel and appointed attorney David A. Brener to represent him in his capital murder, armed burglary, and child abuse case. Dunn had alleged that his prior attorneys had refused to investigate his background, order and provide depositions, and follow leads which could mitigate his alleged actions. Dunn is accused of going to his wife's place of employment - Bobby Noonan's Day-Care Center - and chasing her down and fatally shooting her in front of children at the center. The state is seeking the death penalty. As is required by the American Bar Association Guidelines for the Appointment and Performance of Defense Counsel in Death Penalty Cases, I immediately met with the client, spoke to a mental health expert, and sought to put together a defense team by filing motions for co-counsel, a fact investigator, and mitigation specialist. I was flabbergasted to learn that noone from the defense had ever spoken in depth to the client's family in the two years since the inception of the case. Budget issues are more than problematic in the context of capital cases. Defense counsel must be given the resources to properly defend a person on trial for his or her life. If a public or private law firm is unable to secure sufficient funding to properly defend a capital case, it should litigate the issue of funding, or seek to withdraw, as it is ethically and morally obligated to provide high quality legal services in capital cases. Not doing the work, especially concerning the investigation of mitigating circumstances, is simply not an option, when death is on the table. |