by Richard Prior
Staff Writer
When U.S. Magistrate Judge Marcia Morales Howard was asked to talk about how her life has changed over the past 15 months, she had any number of choices to draw from.
She could have devoted her entire speech to humor . . . how tough it is to procure office furniture through the federal government; how the new federal courthouse is so much quieter than the hallways at her former firm, McGuire Woods; how quickly that same courthouse, dedicated to the use and benefit of the public, acquired a new electronic filing system that eliminates the need for attorneys and public to come to the building at all.
She could have compared the 17 months that the U.S. Senate took to confirm U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan with the seven months needed to confirm Judge Virginia Hernandez Covington, the newest district judge for the Middle District.
She could have then drawn the conclusion that “Congress has much more respect for the wrath of a Cuban woman.”
That sounds a lot like the way her speech started out last week to the members of the Jacksonville Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. But that’s not how it concluded.
On a more serious note, Howard pointed out that the legal landscape changed considerably with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in “Blakely vs. Washington,” which, she said, “threatens to push the federal criminal justice system to the very verge of chaos.”
“For someone still very new to the criminal law area,” said Howard, “it’s been fascinating for me to watch the U.S. attorneys and the defense lawyers, probation officers and judges respond to a landmark decision that calls into question the way every step of a criminal prosecution is accomplished.”
Howard then ratcheted up the seriousness again, saying she had no doubt about the biggest change she’s had to deal with: detention decisions.
When she was in private practice, she said, all of her clients’ cases were important, “and maybe somebody’s job was on the line. But we were all going to walk out of the courtroom.
“It’s very daunting to me to make decisions about people’s liberty.”
On an intellectual level, such a decision may seem cut and dried, something that comes with the territory, Howard added:
“But it’s an entirely different animal when you’re sitting up there, and you’re looking at the person, and you’re looking at their family, and you’re struggling with whether or not you’re convinced that person is a danger to the community or a flight risk.
“That, to me, has been the most significant change and probably the hardest to come to grips with. I don’t know that I will come to grips with it. Maybe I shouldn’t.”
Also during the luncheon meeting, Corrigan explained the Middle District’s new federal court pro bono referral project and encouraged members to take part.
When a pro se litigant appears before the court in a civil matter, the judge first will decide if the matter involves a justiciable issue of law or fact.
The judge will then determine if the litigant has the financial means to retain counsel. If the judge decides counsel should be appointed, he or his office will simultaneously contact a designated officer of the Federal Bar Association and Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.
The Federal Bar Association will have a list of attorneys who have volunteered to take on pro bono referrals under the project. Referrals will work as though they came from JALA, with attorneys receiving full pro bono credit for their work.
Attorneys are not expected to be called more than once a year for a referral.
The Jacksonville chapter was also notified that it had been named the winner of two awards from the Federal Bar Association’s headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The honors were the 2004 Meritorious Newsletter Recognition Award for the chapter’s regular publications and the 2004 Presidential Citation Award for the inaugural Hon. Ralph W. Nimmons CLE Seminar.