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Contributor: Rick Horowitz Law Office of Rick Horowitz

SUMMARY: While awaiting my bar results, I was approached by the family of a man charged with a gang murder. It was a death penalty case at the time, but I had reason to believe the DA's office would soon take death off the table. (They did a few weeks after I took the case. I cannot say it was me who convinced them to do so.)

They were referred to me by one of the better-known criminal law specialists in the area, for whom I had clerked, because of my significant study of, and focus upon, gang case law. He apparently believed I could handle the case.

I originally refused to take the case. What newly-minted attorney takes a death penalty case right out of the chute?

Another attorney friend with over 30 years of experience, both as a DA and as a defense attorney, who had handled death penalty cases as a DA, heard about it. He volunteered to take the case with me; the client received two attorneys for only a slightly higher fee.

Per agreement, we both attended all hearings (he did have to miss one small procedural hearing). I wrote all motions. This was one of the first.

I don't know why I seem to get the clients with whom I have trouble getting contact visits in the jail, but, that's what this motion is about.

Oh, and ultimately I engineered a plea agreement for a determinate term of years with which my client was quite happy.

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Rick Horowitz Law Office of Rick Horowitz My practice, located in downtown Fresno less than a block from the County Courthouse,... [Profile | Documents]

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