David Patton, head of New York’s federal public defenders office and an outspoken critic of the criminal justice system, will lead the defense of accused New York City bomber Ahmad Khan Rahami.
Prior to joining the federal public defender’s office as executive director, Patton was an academic and the author of several scholarly articles critical of the U.S. justice system.
Patton is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was editor of the Virginia Law Review. After graduating, he clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Claude Hilton. He later taught at Stanford Law School, where he ran the university’s legal defense clinic. He also practiced at Sullivan & Cromwell early in his career. (RELATED: NYC Bomber Suspect Says He Was Told By Terrorist Leaders To ‘Attack Non-Believers’)
In his capacity as federal public defender he led the defense of Abu Anas al Libi, a Libyan national under indictment for his alleged role in the bombing of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. Officials alleged he helped plan and surveil the attacks, and served as a body-double for Osama bin Laden. Al Libi died in 2015 in U.S. custody. His office has previously represented Faisal Shahzad, who failed to detonate a bomb in Times Square, and Anna Chapman, a Russian agent operating in the U.S. through the so-called “illegals” program.
He is the author of a 2013 article in the Yale Law Journal called “Federal Public Defense in an Age of Inquisition,” which is indignant in its evaluation of the public defense system. He writes:
“The daily injustices are staggering, the choices absurd: plead guilty at the first appearance and get out of jail, or contest your guilt and sit in jail for months waiting trial; post bail or get a lawyer, but not both; take the deal or roll the dice as one of your public defender’s two hundred to three hundred clients.”
Rahami has been charged by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in the Southern District of New York with four counts relating to his detonation of explosive devices in places of public use in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood and Seaside Park, N.J.
Several issues loom in the short run. As of this writing, it is unclear whether Rahami has received a Miranda warning. Though the Quarles public-safety exception almost certainly applies in this instance, it is likely to expire shortly, as professor Robert Chesney of the University of Texas School of Law explains at Lawfare. He also needs to be appear before a judge (either virtually or in person) very shortly.
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