Hector De Peña was the first lawyer assigned to defend Carlos ...

940 COLUMBIA HUMAN RIGHTS LAW REVIEW [43.3:711
De Peña didn’t, however, expect Joel Kutnick, the psychiatrist
assigned to look into DeLuna’s mental state, to say DeLuna was
impaired. “Kutnick always found them competent if they were
minimally oriented in time and space,” the lawyer recalled.
De Peña had higher hopes for James Plaisted, the
psychologist assigned by the judge. Plaisted was a member of De
Peña’s Baptist church and active with the youth group. It was only
later that De Peña realized Plaisted was no saint. He was “preying on
little kids,” De Peña said. Their church referred kids to him for
counseling, and some got molested.
* * * * *
New to big criminal cases, De Peña hadn’t bargained for this.
A client whose intelligence he doubted. Who insisted he was innocent
and refused to take a deal or argue excuses. But who was too scared
to name the man he saw committing the crime.
His client, De Peña realized, wanted him to find the guy on
his own, or else get the police to do it. Faced with this state of affairs,
De Peña stewed for a month without doing anything. Word went
around among the experienced criminal lawyers that De Peña was
floundering.
On April 6 th , De Peña called for reinforcements. In the first of
two requests to Judge Blackmon that day, De Peña asked for a
psychiatrist to examine Carlos. His client, he said, had exhibited
“symptoms of severe disorder or mental defect for many years” and
couldn’t help with his defense. It was this request that led the judge
to assign Kutnick and Plaisted to take a look.
De Peña’s other request was for a second lawyer on the case.
Two months in, De Peña realized he couldn’t go it alone.
* * * * *
On April 15, Judge Blackmon assigned James Lawrence to
work with De Peña. He also pushed back the date for trial, to June
20.
When the trial took place, Lawrence pretty much ran it for
the defense. Of the thirty-five witnesses called to testify by the state,
Lawrence cross-examined twenty-four. De Peña cross-examined one—
a minor witness at that. No one cross-examined the ten remaining
witnesses. Of the five witnesses the defense presented, Lawrence
prepared two—including the single, main witness, Carlos DeLuna
himself—and DePeña prepared three minor witnesses. De Peña
happily took a back seat.