Stephenson Speaks at Depaul College of Law

April 9, 2009. Chicago, Illinois.

Criminal Appellate Defense Lawyer RM Stephenson spoke to faculty and students at the Depaul University College of Law as the featured speaker at event sponsered jointly by the DePaul University College of Law ACS Chapter and the Center for Public Interest Law.

The event concerned the application of Plain Error in the case of People v. Walker and the future implications of the Supreme Court's unanimous opinion reversing Walker's first and second degree murder convictions. The elegance of the Supreme Court's opinion was that it sought to prevent this type of error in the future by

"remind[ing] [the] bench and bar that at issue in a request
for a continuance in a criminal trial is not only a circuit
court's discretion as to whether to grant that request, but also
a defendant's constitutional right to a fair, procedurally sound
trial, which necessitates the making of a sufficient record to
establish that a defendant has been afforded a fair process."

This provides trial lawyers with ample basis for argument in similar, future issues.

At the conclusion of the event, Mr. Stephenson accepted an invitation to submit a law review article concerning the case to the Depaul University Journal on Social Justice.

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