Fox News' Greg Gutfeld: Adegbile Is A "Cop Killer's Coddler" Comparable To Guantanamo Detainees. The Five co-host Gutfeld, along with Fox News' Megyn Kelly, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson, have based multiple segments off of fringe bloggers' accusations that the NAACP LDF's successful appellate challenge to an improper death sentence is reprehensible. From the January 9, 2014, edition of The Five:
GUTFELD: The Fraternal Order of Police slammed the White House for nominating a cop-killer's coddler to a top job at the Justice Department. Debo Adegbile is a volunteer supporter and defender of Mumia Abu-Jamal who murdered Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in cold blood 30 years ago. And so, you've got to wonder in a nation of sanctimonious attorneys, Obama picks this guy? What, none of the chaps he's releasing from Gitmo were free, or is he saving them for cabinet posts? And yet we're still supposed to believe that Reverend Wright's claims were all false, so once again America is punished for being deeply racist. How is this nomination not a hate crime against our nation's police? Maybe celebrity supporters of that same cop killer like Ed Asner and Mike Farrell can explain this to Officer Faulkner's widow or ask Harry Reid who gamed the Senate to ensure passage of horrid nominees like this one. This guy may be the first job Reid's created. But look, the outrage doesn't matter to Obama and neither does Mumia's guilt. This is about transferring power to the few, the radical, the race-baiting academics. Cop killing after all may be just a response to a racist society. Even the phrase "cop killer" is just too mean. Isn't it really just bigot control? But who cares? The media will focus on New Jersey traffic instead, and ignore this. Alas, Christie casts a big shadow, in every sense. [The Five, 1/9/14]
FACT: Criminal Defense Is A Respected Part Of American Law And LDF Successfully Overturned An Unconstitutional Death Sentence
American Bar Association: Adegbile Legal Representation Was "Consistent With The Finest Tradition" Of American Lawyering. The president of the American Bar Association (ABA), James R. Silkenat, wrote a letter to the Democratic and Republican leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee unequivocally stating that Adegbile "should be commended, not condemned." From the January 13, 2014, letter:
As the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to deliberate over the nomination of Debo Adegbile to be Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division, I write to address the criticism this nominee has received regarding the legal representation he provided to a death-sentenced prisoner.
A fundamental tenet of our justice system and our Constitution is that anyone who faces loss of liberty has a right to legal counsel. Lawyers have an ethical obligation to uphold that principle and provide zealous representation to people who otherwise would stand alone against the power and resources of the government - even to those accused or convicted of terrible crimes. The American people understand this obligation, and the corollary principle stated in rule 1.2(b) of the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct that "[a] lawyer's representation of a client does not constitute an endorsement of the client's political, economic, social or moral views or activities."
I was alarmed to learn that there is some opposition to Mr. Adegbile's nomination based solely on his efforts to protect the fundamental rights of an unpopular client while working at the Legal Defense Fund. His work, like the work of ABA members who provide thousands of hours of pro bono legal services every year, is consistent with the finest tradition of this country's legal profession and should be commended, not condemned. [American Bar Association, 1/13/14]
NAACP LDF: Adegbile Was Following In The Steps Of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, To Ensure Criminal Justice Is Administered "Without Regard To Race." The legal arguments of the NAACP LDF on behalf of condemned prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal were not in regards to his innocence but rather to unconstitutional death sentencing jury instructions, efforts that were twice successful before the federal court of appeals. From the January 9, 2014, statement of Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP LDF:
Almost 25 years after Mr. Abu-Jamal's trial and conviction in state court, LDF chose to support Mr. Abu-Jamal's federal court jury selection challenges, and later to represent him. We did so for the same reason that we have represented people accused and convicted of crimes since Thurgood Marshall was LDF's first Director-Counsel - because LDF is committed to ensuring that the American criminal justice system is administered fairly and without regard to race, such that all individuals charged with or convicted of crimes are afforded the safeguards guaranteed by the constitution. Given the persistent, arbitrary and uncontroverted role of race in the administration of the death penalty, this mandate is particularly imperative in racially charged capital cases. When racial discrimination or other constitutional defects enter any aspect of the criminal justice system, it imperils the integrity of that system for everyone.
In Mr. Abu-Jamal's case, after LDF became counsel-of-record, his death sentence was conclusively found to be unconstitutional because his sentencing jury had been improperly instructed. Indeed, the federal court of appeals found in 2008, and again in 2011, that LDF's claim of constitutional error was correct. [NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 1/9/14]
The guy was just doing his job. Was he supposed to NOT do his job and have someone else do it? That makes no sense. Abu-Jamal was obviously guilty, but the law is the law. If the court system did not do It's job, (they clearly DID NOT) then it is a responsibility to insure that justice prevails.