African-American Federal Defender Representing Accused White Supremacist: When the Personal and Professional Collide
By: Steve Grumm
One of the constant challenges in lawyering generally – but particularly in public defense work – can be putting aside personal sentiment and focusing entirely on a client’s best interest. With that in mind, here’s an interesting story from the Chicago Tribune about an African American federal defender who is representing a man accused of a racially motivated crime. This is a good read for aspiring public defenders.
It wasn’t until [federal defender MiAngel] Cody reached the courtroom and leafed through the indictment that she learned the details of the charges against the heavily tattooed white man sitting next to her — he was accused of setting fire to his neighbor’s home because the family was black.
Cody is African-American. She had just been appointed to defend an alleged white supremacist.
Cody privately conferred at some length with defendant Brian James Moudry and then stood next to him before a federal judge to enter a plea of not guilty on Moudry’s behalf. Appointed by the court to represent the indigent Moudry, Cody is scheduled to be by his side again when the case is back in court later this week.
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Sitting in court late last month, Moudry’s tattoos provided a billboard of his white supremacist views: “Blue Eyed Devil” is scrawled on the back of his shaved head and the number “14” is imprinted on his throat — an apparent reference to a 14-word pledge to white power.
Several criminal-defense attorneys said it isn’t uncommon to represent a client whose beliefs are abhorrent to them. One recalled a defendant who was bothered by the lawyer’s Jewish faith. In Cook County, a defendant once unsuccessfully tried to ditch his public defender because she was a woman.
Most of the times, the attorneys said, they strive to provide a vigorous defense for those clients — sometimes even more so because of the ideological clash. And the truth is clients are often won over, they said.
Yet Cody’s race goes to the heart of the charges against her client, adding an extra layer of scrutiny for her, said one lawyer who faced a similar predicament.
“She is going to have to decide if she can separate his potential hatred for her … or the potential hatred for African-Americans … to do her job,” said Nishay Sanan, an Indian-American attorney who represented a self-avowed white supremacist in federal court in Chicago. “Good lawyers have to separate their feelings from their clients’ ideologies. Otherwise, a lot of clients wouldn’t be defended.”
One lawyer who knows Cody says she’s up to the task:
“Our job is to represent people charged,” said Terry MacCarthy, who ran the federal defender’s office in Chicago for 42 years and still has an office there. “A good criminal-defense attorney can handle anything … He’ll be in real good hands with her. She is one very good and very bright lawyer.”