lookingland

30 days and counting: still working on the doctor's scene, took a break and wrote a sorta-semi flashback thing that i will probably keep though i am hard-pressed to define it.

answers to some of the burning questions i posited earlier, namely: 1. who paid the bill? and 2. whose firm was Poppet working for?

"An accused before any court-martial is entitled to free legal representation by military defense counsel, and can also retain civilian counsel at his or her expense." while this is part of the modern definition, let's presume the same was true then as well (it would have to be ~ i can think of no other way to do it).

Poppet was more or less obliged to take the case when Burnett approached him because he was (drumroll please) working in the city as defense counsel for the military courts (see, it pays to reread the same source five times ~ you pick up on little sentences that slip through the cracks now and then!).

so as a civilian (which he was then) he had a military contract ~ the government paid his bill. interestingly, that also means they were also paying the bill for his witnesses.

i don't have much info on this, but i'm guessing Poppet had taken an assignment as counsel for general courts martial against u.s. deserters, brawlers, and the like (probably as a result of contacts made in his former capacity as provost marshall).

now here's me just being cloak and dagger, but Poppet sure had more trouble getting witnesses into the court than any of the other counsel (for a variety of reasons ~ particularly that he got such a late start with Powell). but one has to wonder, again, about that subpoena to florida that didn't seem to get executed. of course if it just got tangled up in typically ridiculous military red tape, that would be a reasonable explanation for it.

at any rate, this is really inneresting because it now makes something like sense: Poppet knew the system from his former job and he knew the abuses of the system. i find it very noble that he would go back and fight that system as a newly minted lawyer. it's smart (a good way to hone his skills), and it's altruistic (the job had to suck! ). he probably was not ready to take on this particular case (he had only passed the bar the previous year), but it makes his attempt all the more admirable.

it also answers the question as to why did he left d.c. after 1865. the war was over.

the only question that leaves me is: if Poppet was a contract defense attorney regularly appointed to defendants in the military court system, why did John hire him? why did he not simply ask that he be appointed to the case? or is that what he means when he says "hire". that no actual cash exchanged hands? this would also make sense since i can't imagine where they would have got the money for attorney's fees, etc.

in fact, Poppet represented the two defendants who had no money. even John Ford paid Spangler's bill.

~ * ~

man, i am just fragged from the week. i could fall asleep right now (like in the palm of a hand).