SCOTUSblog on camera: David Porter part one

How the public defender sharpens legal arguments and makes cases easier, on both direct appeal and federal habeas.

In this five-part series, David Porter talks about direct federal appeals, habeas corpus and “being heard,” changing ideas of crime, terrorism, and punishment; and the realities of “effective assistance of counsel” fifty years after Gideon v. Wainwright. Mr Porter is an Assistant Federal Defender at the Office of the Federal Defender for the Eastern District of California in Sacramento, California.