Welcome Joe Lucas and Kaylyn Waisbrot to the ranks of Specialist Certified:  Legal (SC:L) holders. 
Congrats are in order, you did well.

Dwight Jones was on trial in Milwaukee for theft of a motorcycle.   Mr. Jones is deaf and was provided with proceedings interpreters for the trial; however, he was unable to communicate with counsel becase the table interpreting function was left unstaffed.  The trial court determined that Mr. Jones could lipread his attorney.  In the opinion, the appellate court disagreed and noted that Mr. Jones had provided substantial evidence that people over estimate their ability to comprehend others while lipreading.  The decision was reported on by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and can be read here.

Mahamu Kanneh's trial was delayed for over a year because Montgomery County, Maryland was unable to provide interpreters for his rape and sexual abuse trial in his native language of Vai.  Mr. Kanneh is from Liberia and is being deported while the State's Attorney in Montgomery County appeals Judge Katherine Savage's dismissal of his case.  Judge Savage dismissed the case on speedy trial grounds because of the inability to provide interpreters.  The state argued that interpreters were unnecessary as Mr. Kanneh had been raised in Maryland and attended both high school and college here.  We can look forward to a new Maryland case regarding the right to an interpreter, even though Mr. Kannah will be in Liberia and not present for the appeal. 

There are two actually.  First, the NAJIT Board of Directors have voted to close the NAJIT yahoo groups to non-members.  This is a list for spoken language interpreters and has a healthy proportion of ASL lurkers as well.  The group has always been public, but for reasons that many are not happy about, the Board will require membership to join the forum.  A group has already set up a separate alternative group for non-members, and members alike, which will remain public.  Click here to be directed to the the new group.  The goup is calling itself JIT for Judicial Interpreters and Translators.

Secondly, ASL intepreters are talking about a Texas Court of Appeals decision that was announced this week regarding the use of deaf interpreters.   The opinion deals with the use of specialist teams of deaf and hearing intepreters in a legal proceeding when necessary for a full understanding of the proceedings.  The link was sent to me by Lucy Wood of Advocacy Inc., who was involved in an ancillary civil proceeding. 

I know many of us have reservations about using technology in courts and hospitals and the like.  I just received a video of a deaf woman's experience using VRI at an emergency room and wanted to share it with you.  I think it's valuable to keep in mind that deaf folks may have differing views of the utility of VRI.  Check it out. 

Who knew that interpreting could be dangerous and illegal?!!!  Well apparently it is in Poland according to this story.  Read on and translate at your own risk.

A number of blogs, vlogs and lists have discussed the death penalty trial of Daphne Wright which is occurring in South Dakota.  Sadly, most of the information that commentators have to consider comes from the news media which is not the most informed source on sign language interpreting in courts.  Some have wondered why there is not more concrete information concerning how the interpreters are actually functioning in court.  Reponses to this inquiry have suggested that the interpreters are not present in these online forums for good reason, they are interpreting the trial and are under strict confidentiality mandates.  That certainly makes sense, but it encourages second guessing. 

Bellia Garrobo hired an attorney to represent her against charges that she had stolen property from her employer. Ms. Garrobo spoke little English.  The attorney did not speak Spanish and enlisted a friend to interpret for Ms. Garrobo.  This same friend was expected to interpret during the proceedings; however, because the "friend" was also listed as a witness, he could not interpret during the trial.  The attorney went forward with the proceedings in the absence of any interpreter at all.  After Ms. Garrobo was convicted, she fired her attorney, sought new counsel and had the conviction vacated due to ineffective assistance of counsel. The attorney received a suspension as a sanction from the court as a result of a bar counsel complaint that had been filed. 

Other attorneys have had complaints filed against them with the Department of Justice for failing to provide professional interpreters for clients during law office consultations.  The National Association of the Deaf filed a complaint against an attorney who had taken a case to sue a hospital on behalf of a deaf person claiming that the hospital did not provide interpreters.  Ironically, the attorney would not provide an interpreter for the law office consultations with the deaf client.  As a result, the deaf client obtained the NAD's assistance in filing a complaint.  The lesson is simple.  Attorneys must provide communicative access for deaf clients.