Under that title, Fox news reported that Debo Adegbile’s nomination, as head of the Ciivil Rights Division of the US Department of Justice, was stalled as it failed to get enough votes to advance to a final vote.
The great sin committed by Mr. Adegbile was having represented legally Abu Jamal, a man who in 1981 killed police officer Daniel Faulkner. Abu Jamal had gone through trial process, had been convicted and sentenced to death. It was an appeal to this death sentence that the NAACP Legal Defense Fund accepted Abu Jamal as a client, and Mr. Adegbile as a member of the Legal Defense Fund filed some briefs on his behalf. He was successful; thus, the death sentence was overturned although his conviction stands. Jamal was to remain in jail for life without possibility of parole.
Fox news showcased the opposition against confirmation of the appointee by the widow of the slained officer. Also, opposed were the Fraternal Order of Police, and all the Republican Senators, plus seven Democratic Senators who joined them to reject the nominee. Fox news bloggers called Adegbile a “cop killer cuddler.”
The issue appears to be that Mr. Adegbile as an attorney at law and member of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, undertook to file some briefs on behalf of Jamal. He did not help in the trial stage but much later, after his conviction and sentence, while he was in death row an appeal to that death sentence. It is a basic constitutional right of any person accused of a crime to have legal representation. Attorney Adegbile just did the job his organization undertook. To deny the nomination to an extremely capable attorney on that basis in my opinion is un-American. It goes against everything we stand for.
It seems more of a political ploy than a principled action. Fox news reported that the Chairmen of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus called the nomination itself “an embarrassment for President Obama”, and blast “vulnerable Democrats running in 2014” who voted yes. Political gamesmanship, rather than qualifications appear to be the real reason behind this shameful vote in the Senate.
Looking at our history, John Adams, (1797-1801) second President of the United States who was an ardent defender of the colonists legal right to rebel against England. However, in 1770 he was the attorney defending the British soldiers, who killed five colonists, in the “Boston Massacre,” yet that was no bar for him to be nominated and elected President of the United States.
Moreover, recently in our history, we find Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall (1961-1991), who after graduating from Howard Law School joined the legal staff of the NAACP and later became its Chief Counsel. His most important case as an attorney involved his representation before the Supreme Court in the case Brown vs Board of Education, which he won, Marshall was opposed to the death penalty and supported the rights of criminal defendants. He was brilliant lawyer appointed to the Circuit Court of Appeals and later President Johnson nominated him to the Supreme Court where he served until 1991 when he retired. Marshall’s views and advocacy against the death penalty and the rights of criminal defendants did not affect his nomination to the Supreme Court.
Additionally, not long ago in our history, we have present Chief US Supreme Court Justice John Roberts, while a practicing Attorney offered to act as a pro-bono lawyer to Florida serial killer, John E. Ferguson, who had killed eight people in 1977-1978 and who ultimately was executed in October 2012. Justice Roberts offer to represent this killer was never a reason to deny him an appointment to the highest Court of the land.
In the case of Mr. Adegbile, Fox news presents their bloggers who called Adegbile as a “cop killer cuddler” and representing a “non-repentant cop killer.” Such representations are not only unfair but vicious.
Attorney Adegbile has argued successfully two cases before the United States Supreme Court. These cases were related to the Civil Rights Voting Act, the Act that prohibits voting discrimination. He is considered the top expert in the country on these laws and it is precisely this area of the Law which he had been nominated to head, the Civil Rights Department of the Department of Justice. At a time when voting restriction laws are cropping up in many states, it is very important to have in the Department of Justice an able administrator, or is this perhaps the reasons Republicans are so opposed to the appointment of Mr. Adegbile?
As Americans we oppose the unfair criteria developed by the Republican opposition. Attorneys are not responsible for the crimes of their clients, they are just fulfilling the time honored constitutional right of defendants to legal representation. On the other hand, we need the best people in the top jobs of government, such as the Justice department and Mr. Debo Agdebile appears to be eminently qualified for the job. He should be confirmed.
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