A Kansas lawyer has been disbarred for "inexplicable incompetence" after he suggested in his summing up that a jury might want to rule that his client be executed.

Dennis Hawver represented Phillip Cheatham in a murder trial in 2005. He variously described his own client as a "highly street-smart and intelligent criminal", a "shooter of people" and a "professional drug dealer". He failed to introduce evidence which might have proved his client was nowhere near the scene ("I had no idea that cellphones had GPS capabilities at that time"). He volunteered the information that his client had previously been convicted of manslaughter, despite prosecutors agreeing that this need not be disclosed. And in his summing up he suggested that his client might be sentenced to death.

And he was, before the conviction was overturned, a retrial ordered and Hawver hauled into the inevitable disciplinary hearing. Which he attended dressed in a Boris Johnson wig, jabot and fancy dress coat. Or as he put it, as his hero Thomas Jefferson.

    How he thought he looked
    How he actually looked

Hawver argued that he was protected by the First Amendment. But the Kansas Supreme Court held that it was a self evident truth that he was inexplicably incompetent and disbarred him.

Hawver said that he intended to leave the law anyway and devote more time to growing vegetables in his aquaponics garden.

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Comments

Anonymous 28 November 14 19:19

It is indeed true. His hapless client probably thought "I'm not in Kansas anymore" and meant it...

Here's a link, which includes a video link, for those who'd like to get the full flavour of his argument:

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/lawyer_is_disbarred_for_inexplicable_incompetence_see_video_of_his_argument