OTHERWISE: Senate Rejects Obama Nominee Linked to Abu-Jamal Case – NYTimes.com.

Capital defense attorneys – like others who represent the despised – have long been held in high regard by the legal profession. “A lawyer’s representation of a client”, RPC 1.2 (c) tells us “does not constitute an endorsement of the clients political, economic, social or moral views or activities”. One would hope, we know now in vain, that the United States Senate would appreciate that point. Instead conservative Democrats from “red states” abandoned “Debo P. Adegbile, who headed the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund when it represented Mr. [Mumia] Abu-Jamal decades after his conviction, could not overcome a concerted campaign by Republicans, conservative activists and law enforcement organizations, still infuriated by the murder of Police Officer Daniel Faulkner.” – gwc