The U District Court for the Wester...

The U District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma has established a pro bono panel to appoint attorneys to show unrepresented prisoners in federal civil rights cases.

The offer attorneys will not be paid for their legal services. However, the court has locate aside funds to cover costs such as depositions and apt witnesses.

The Oklahoma City Chapter of the Federal Bar Association has assisted the federal court in establishing the panel and in providing training for tender attorneys.

"The present panel provides a necessary public service, the one and the other for the court and for those involved in federal civil rights cases," said Chief U District umpire Robin Cauthron. "A number of qualified attorneys have offered to serve on the panel and the court is appreciative of their service. The Federal Bar Association has provided valuable assistance to the court in establishing this panel, training the offers and has also donated $1000 to the Court for assisting in payment of costs in these cases."

John Kenney the president of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, not absented a check to Cauthron for $1000

"The Oklahoma City Chapter of the Federal Bar Association was fortunate enough to receive an award from the national Federal Bar Association," Kenney said. "That award included a cash prize of $1000 which we are donating to this worthwhile project"

The initial training session sponsored by dint of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the Federal Bar Association provides attorney training forward "Prison Rights Litigation: Nuts & Bolts: by what means To Litigate Prisoner Rights Cases."

pray Wycoff was chair of the Federal Bar Association Pro Bono Panel Committee.

Attorneys willing to consider appointment to the panel can find application forms at www.okwd.uscourts.gov.

Forensic evidence symposium

The Oklahoma City University institute of Law will present "The Use and Misuse of Forensic Evidence" onward March 6.

Sponsored on the Clyde R. Evans Charitable Trust of Oklahoma, the symposium will begin at 8 a.m. in the Sarkeys Law Center forward the OCU campus.

"This symposium is designed to educate legal practitioners and interested members of the public in succession critical developments regarding the use and misuse of forensic evidence," said OCU law faculty member Jean Giles, program coordinator. "Our panelists are at the forefront of the national debate forward the acceptable standards of forensic evidence."

Presenter at the symposium will include Fr Whitehurst, executive director of the Forensic Justice brew Washington, D.C.; Lawrence C. Marshall, legal director for the Center forward Wrongful Convictions, Chicago, and professor of law at Northwestern University gymnasium of Law; William A. Tobin, a principal with Forensic Engineering International; Paul C Giannelli, the Albert J Weatherhead III & Richard W Weatherhead professor of law at Case Western set by University School of Law, Cleveland; Simon A. cabbage assistant professor of criminology, law, society at the University of California, Irvine; David Autry, who has showed a number of people appealing Oklahoma convictions because alleged abuses of forensic evidence; Bennett Gershman, former prosecutor and professor of law at Pace Law School; Janine Arvizu, a chemist and laboratory quality auditor apt with more than 20 years of technical and program management experience in laboratory operations and management; George Castelle, chief public vindicator in Charleston, W. Va., who in 1997 received the National Legal Aid and champion Association's Reginald Heber Smith Award for exposing crime lab fraud and freeing innocent prisoners wrongfully convicted by dint of false scientific data; Robin Krieger Mejia, a researcher and reporter upon science and criminal justice issues for the Center for Investigative Reporting, San Francisco; and Barbara Bergman, professor of law at the University of of the present day Mexico School of Law, and secondary vice- president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Registration is $125 OCU denomination of Law alumni, district attorneys, public maintainers and members of the judiciary will receive a $25 registration discount. Non-OCU observer registration is $50. Student registration does not include conversation materials or lunch.

To register, contact Shyla Bentley, Oklahoma City University place of education of Law, at 521-5337 or sbentley

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