October 18, 2002
Federal judge to rule in Burdine case

Federal judge David Hittner will decide by next week whether or not Calvin Burdine should be represented by his appeals attorney in his murder retrial, or if he should let stand Judge Joan Hoffman's ruling that Burdine should be represented by an appointed attorney. It's highly unusual for a federal judge to intervene in a case that is still in progress. Hittner is actually ruling on whether or not he has the authority to intervene, which is just a tad bit convoluted to me, but whatever. For sure if he rules that he can step in, he will rule that Burdine should get the lawyer of his choice, as anything else would make the whole exercise pointless. Time to set a precedent, Your Honor...

Posted by Charles Kuffner on October 18, 2002 to Crime and Punishment
Comments

Why does the name David Hittner sound so familiar? What other high profile cases has he been involved with?

Whitlock

Posted by: R. Alex on October 18, 2002 3:15 PM

Actually, he was the federal judge who first ordered a new trial for Burdine, as the article mentions. Perhaps that's where you heard the name before?

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on October 18, 2002 4:37 PM

No, I haven't been following the Burdine thing very closely.

Was he the judge in the Reyes/Moldanato/Yarbrough/others trial?

Whitlock

Posted by: R. Alex on October 18, 2002 7:26 PM

That I couldn't tell you. I'd have to do some Googling or Chron archive searching.

Posted by: Charles Kuffner on October 19, 2002 12:08 PM

He did. I looked it up. I remember being impressed by his handling of that case.

Whitlock

Posted by: R. Alex on October 20, 2002 2:24 AM