Optimistic Paranoid
Observer
I just renewed my annual membership in the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network.
On a whim, I checked to see if anyone had mentioned it here, and I didn't find anything on it, so I thought I would post something.
It costs $85 a year to belong. Of that, 25%, or $21.25, goes into a special defense fund called the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Foundation. As of June 1st, there is $122,000 in the Defense Fund and just over 4,000 members. (I am member #0945, btw.) So we can expect the fund to continue to take in at least $80,000 a year. Why is this important to us?
I'm a bit of a training junkie, and over the last fifteen years or so, I've taken multiple courses with Massad Ayoob and some of the other nationally well known instructors.
Mas's LFI1 course was awesome - 40 hours, over five days. 20 hours of shooting, and 20 hours of the straight scoop on the legal aftermath. Let me mention a few of the things I learned.
97% of the people who are arrested by police are either guilty as charged, or are guilty of some lesser, included offense. The average Criminal Defense Attorney has never had an innocent client, and doesn't know how to defend an innocent client. He or she is an expert on getting a good plea bargain.
Go into the prisons, and you will hear prisoners bragging about how good their defense attorney was. You and I might think it strange that a guy who was CONVICTED is bragging about how good his attorney was. It's always something like: "Hell, man, the cops had me dead-to-rights for something I should have gotten 25 years to life for, and my attorney got it reduced to two years plus time served. He was Great!"
Mas used to recomend that we find out who our local PBA used to defend their members if they were charged with a wrongful shooting. He's probably the only attorney in your city (or county, or whatever) who really understands self-defense shootings and innocent clients and how to defend them.
You get ONE phone call that connects after your arrest. If you try to call an attorney direct, and you get his ANSWERING SERVICE, you've had your phone call, and you are all done. If it's a long weekend, and the attorney is out sailing, you may wind up sitting in the cell for three or four days until something finally happens. Meanwhile, potential witnesses might be heading down the road and other evidence might be disappearing.
You need to call your spouse, your parents, your brother, anyone you can trust to fight for you, who will keep trying until he gets through to an attorney, who can start trying to raise bail for you, etc.
A week or so after you make bail, the cops will subpoena your phone records, and interogate everyone you talked to after you got out. Spousal Privilege applies ONLY to your SPOUSE, not to your kids or your mother! They CAN be compelled to testify against you if you tell them anything about what happened! Tell them you are innocent, and tell them you can't talk about it! Don’t say anything else to them.
Mas has told us that if we are ever in a shooting, we are not to contact him directly, but have our lawyer contact him immediately. Anything I say to him is not privileged, but anything my LAWYER says to him IS.
After a shooting, a GOOD defense attorney will immediately get a Private Investigator looking into it and trying to find evidence that exonerates you. (You didn't REALLY want to depend on the nice, impartial police officers - the same ones who arrested you - to look for evidence that exonerates you, did you?)
This won't be some colorful clown like you see on TV. It will usually be a retired homicide detective or retired FBI agent. Because he was hired by your defense attorney (and not by you personally) he is part of the defense team. The cops can't prevent him from investigating and if he stumbles over anything that tends to support your guilt rather than your innocence, that fact is privileged, just like any statements you make to your attorney.
Let me just close this part of the post by saying that LFI1 was the best course I ever took, and it was absolutely money well spent!
All of the above is why I have chosen to belong to the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network. Access to enough money to get a GOOD lawyer and a GOOD investigator working on your case AS FAST AS POSSIBLE after a shooting is VITAL. I intend to continue renewing my annual membership until I am too old and decrepit to pull a trigger any more.
www.armedcitizensnetwork.org
Regards
John
Oh, and their monthly journal - only available online, and only available to members - is a great read, too!
On a whim, I checked to see if anyone had mentioned it here, and I didn't find anything on it, so I thought I would post something.
It costs $85 a year to belong. Of that, 25%, or $21.25, goes into a special defense fund called the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Foundation. As of June 1st, there is $122,000 in the Defense Fund and just over 4,000 members. (I am member #0945, btw.) So we can expect the fund to continue to take in at least $80,000 a year. Why is this important to us?
"After a self-defense shooting, the armed citizen desperately needs legal representation, an independent investigation of the incident, and more. The Network stands ready to get this underway for it's members with an initial deposit against attorney's fees of up to $5,000 remitted when the member's attorney contacts the network to report that a member has been involved in a self-defense situation. If requested, a Network official will go to the location to assist the member in obtaining these critical services.
In addition, an attorney representing a Network member involved in a self-defense incident may also request the following -
Case review by a Network self-defense expert at no charge.
Consultation about defense strategies.
In addition, members enjoy exclusive access to a list of Network-affiliated attorneys and Network affiliated experts with knowledge of the many facets of armed self-defense.
... A member who has been involved in a self-defense shooting can request a grant of assistance to defray legal costs beyond the up to $5,000 deposit against fees. The Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Foundation Advisory Board, comprised of Massad Ayoob, John Farnam, Tom Givens, Dennis Tueller, and Marty Hayes, along with Foundation President J. Vincent Shuck, reviews the incident and decides how much additional assistance to grant."
I'm a bit of a training junkie, and over the last fifteen years or so, I've taken multiple courses with Massad Ayoob and some of the other nationally well known instructors.
Mas's LFI1 course was awesome - 40 hours, over five days. 20 hours of shooting, and 20 hours of the straight scoop on the legal aftermath. Let me mention a few of the things I learned.
97% of the people who are arrested by police are either guilty as charged, or are guilty of some lesser, included offense. The average Criminal Defense Attorney has never had an innocent client, and doesn't know how to defend an innocent client. He or she is an expert on getting a good plea bargain.
Go into the prisons, and you will hear prisoners bragging about how good their defense attorney was. You and I might think it strange that a guy who was CONVICTED is bragging about how good his attorney was. It's always something like: "Hell, man, the cops had me dead-to-rights for something I should have gotten 25 years to life for, and my attorney got it reduced to two years plus time served. He was Great!"
Mas used to recomend that we find out who our local PBA used to defend their members if they were charged with a wrongful shooting. He's probably the only attorney in your city (or county, or whatever) who really understands self-defense shootings and innocent clients and how to defend them.
You get ONE phone call that connects after your arrest. If you try to call an attorney direct, and you get his ANSWERING SERVICE, you've had your phone call, and you are all done. If it's a long weekend, and the attorney is out sailing, you may wind up sitting in the cell for three or four days until something finally happens. Meanwhile, potential witnesses might be heading down the road and other evidence might be disappearing.
You need to call your spouse, your parents, your brother, anyone you can trust to fight for you, who will keep trying until he gets through to an attorney, who can start trying to raise bail for you, etc.
A week or so after you make bail, the cops will subpoena your phone records, and interogate everyone you talked to after you got out. Spousal Privilege applies ONLY to your SPOUSE, not to your kids or your mother! They CAN be compelled to testify against you if you tell them anything about what happened! Tell them you are innocent, and tell them you can't talk about it! Don’t say anything else to them.
Mas has told us that if we are ever in a shooting, we are not to contact him directly, but have our lawyer contact him immediately. Anything I say to him is not privileged, but anything my LAWYER says to him IS.
After a shooting, a GOOD defense attorney will immediately get a Private Investigator looking into it and trying to find evidence that exonerates you. (You didn't REALLY want to depend on the nice, impartial police officers - the same ones who arrested you - to look for evidence that exonerates you, did you?)
This won't be some colorful clown like you see on TV. It will usually be a retired homicide detective or retired FBI agent. Because he was hired by your defense attorney (and not by you personally) he is part of the defense team. The cops can't prevent him from investigating and if he stumbles over anything that tends to support your guilt rather than your innocence, that fact is privileged, just like any statements you make to your attorney.
Let me just close this part of the post by saying that LFI1 was the best course I ever took, and it was absolutely money well spent!
All of the above is why I have chosen to belong to the Armed Citizens' Legal Defense Network. Access to enough money to get a GOOD lawyer and a GOOD investigator working on your case AS FAST AS POSSIBLE after a shooting is VITAL. I intend to continue renewing my annual membership until I am too old and decrepit to pull a trigger any more.
www.armedcitizensnetwork.org
Regards
John
Oh, and their monthly journal - only available online, and only available to members - is a great read, too!