His Supreme Court Wins Won’t Benefit ‘Victims’

It was just thrilling to read the profile on Jeffrey Fisher by criminal defense attorney David Feige (“The Supreme Beginner,” Dec. 5). Fisher’s perfecta at the Supreme Court will have profound effects. The Crawford vs. Washington decision severely limits any statements made to police officers or therapists from coming into evidence. The decision has already destroyed decades of progress made in efforts to fight domestic violence and sexual child abuse. Prosecutors, women’s advocates and legislators spent years crafting laws to spare these particularly vulnerable victims from further victimization at the hands of defense attorneys and the legal system.

The Blakely vs. Washington decision prohibits judges from giving anything more than a minimal sentence to felons who have been found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In Oregon that would be 18 months in prison for the first time a driver kills someone while driving drunk. Members of the criminal defense bar are thrilled with the Blakely decision. The system is already heavily weighted toward their client, and their sole job is to get that client off the hook.

Long after Fisher becomes rich by defending America’s largest corporations, those of us who devote our lives to protecting the victims of the Blakelys and Crawfords of America will be trying to explain to a battered woman or an abused child why their assailant may walk away from court with nothing but a big smile on his or her face.

Joshua Marquis

District Attorney

Astoria, Ore.