"He Got in My Face So I Shot Him": How Defendants' Language Impairments Impair Attorney-Client Relationships

Abstract

† Clinical Professor of Law, University of Wisconsin Law School; Director, Public Defender Project; Faculty, National Criminal Defense College, Macon, Georgia. J.D., George Washington University. Valuable input, advice, and technical assistance were generously provided by: Professor Allison Christians, McGill University Faculty of Law; Professor Pamela Snow, School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Monash University (Aus.); Joseph Beitchman, M.D., Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of Toronto; Sally Miles, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Madison, Wisconsin; Rachel Fregien, CCC-SLP, Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wisconsin; Arthur Gosselin, Special Education Teacher, Milwaukee Public Schools; the participants at the University of Wisconsin Law School Clinical Faculty Workshop; and Meredith Ross, Clinical Professor Emerita, University of Wisconsin Law School. Research assistance was provided by Erin Vermillion, Sara Jordan, and Kaitlin Lamb. Last, but certainly not least, are the eleven practicing lawyers we call Attorneys A to K who made time to talk with us, and provided remarkable insights and commentary. †† Director/CEO, Mendota Mental Health Institute, Madison, Wis.; Director, Mendota Juvenile Treatment Center, Madison, Wis. Ph.D. (Psychology), University of Wisconsin Madison; J.D., University of Wisconsin Law School. Adjunct Professor of Law, Adjunct Professor of Psychology, University of Wisconsin.