Screams alert residents to firE tHAt KILLED 3 IN OAKLAND
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up the case of a longtime U.S. resident who is facing deportation to South Korea after pleading guilty to a drug crime based on his lawyer's bad advice.
The justices are hearing arguments Tuesday in an appeal by Jae Lee, who has lived in the United States for 35 years and has never been back to South Korea since coming to the United States when he was 13.
The case has taken on increased importance because President Donald Trump has promised to step up deportations, with a special focus on immigrants who have been convicted of crimes. The American Bar Association has estimated that one of every 10 criminal defendants is not an American citizen.
Lee agreed to plead guilty to possession of ecstasy with intent to distribute after his lawyer, Larry Fitzgerald, assured him that doing so would not make him subject to deportation. The lawyer was wrong.
The issue in Lee's appeal is whether the lawyer's recommendation to take the deal offered by prosecutors was so bad that it amounts to a violation of Lee's constitutional right to a lawyer.
Both sides agree that Fitzgerald's performance was deficient in representing Lee. The Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that immigrants have a constitutional right to be told by their lawyers whether pleading guilty to a crime could lead to their deportation.
But Lee almost must show that the bad lawyering mattered to the outcome of the criminal case.
The federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled that the evidence against Lee was overwhelming and that he would have been convicted had he rejected the plea offer and taken his chances at trial. Other appeals courts around the country have sided with immigrants in similar circumstances. The Supreme Court is expected to set a national standard.
Fitzgerald lacked experience in immigration law, did not consult an immigration lawyer and was unaware that the charge Lee was facing would result in mandatory, automatic deportation, according to a magistrate judge's finding.
Lee argued in court papers that a competent lawyer would have sought a better deal that preserved his options for fighting deportation. Failing a deal, Lee said he would have insisted on a trial. He has been in custody for seven years while trying to avoid being deported. OAKLAND, Calif. -- Awakened by screams of “fire,” Michael Jones bolted out of bed in the pre-dawn darkness Monday at the dilapidated Oakland apartment building he calls home, instinctively pounded on the doors of his elderly neighbors and ushered them to safety — walkers and all.
Jones, 43, then found Princess, the “house” pit bull, cowering in the backyard, and the two ran out the front door as glass shattered from the heat.
A few hours later, he and the dog stood across the street, staring at the smoldering wooden structure that housed some 80 low-income residents, many of whom complained that they had not heard alarms, felt sprinklers or found fire extinguishers as they fled the substandard living conditions.
Jones said a prayer of gratitude for surviving the fire that killed three people and hurt four others, including two children. One remained missing.
The Alameda County coroner identified one of the victims as 64-yearold Edwarn Anderson, of Oakland.
Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Erik Logan said some people were hanging from windows and others were in fire escapes when firefighters arrived.
The fire broke out in the rundown neighborhood nearly three months after a warehouse called the Ghost Ship caught fire and killed 36 people attending an unlicensed concert about five miles (eight kilometers) away.
The fires have raised questions about the use of some buildings in the city for residences amid a shortage of affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“At least the rats are gone,” said Angela Taylor, 62, clutching her purse, the only possession she managed to get out of a room she paid $550 a month to live in. “It's the wrong purse, but it's better than nothing. A lady needs her purse.”
In 2010, Oakland allowed the owner of the 40unit building that burned Monday to convert the structure into transitional housing for recovering drug addicts, people struggling with homelessness and others, records show.
Since then, it has been the subject of several building department citations and investigations. City records show building officials verified complaints filed by the nonprofit organization that rents most of the building about deferred maintenance.
The owner, Keith Kim, was sent a notice of violation on March 2 over complaints of large amounts of trash and debris, building materials and furniture behind the property. Kim did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press.
The building department also has an open investigation into complaints of “no working heat throughout the building, electrical issues and a large pest infestation,” city records show.
Fire inspectors visited the building three days before the blaze and found it lacked fire extinguishers, smoke detectors in each apartment and a working fire sprinkler system, among other violations, according to documents released by the city.
Inspectors on Friday ordered the owner to immediately service the fire alarm and fire sprinkler systems.
Mayor Libby Schaaf viewed the building briefly Monday and in a statement later offered her sympathies to the families of those affected but didn't address the complaints against the building.
City fire officials have been criticized for failing to inspect the Ghost Ship warehouse and the mayor conceded that city agencies need to improve communications after records showed police responding to a number of complaints there in the months before the Dec. 2 blaze.