Government
May 31, 2001
'Dedicated' Public Defender Gets Third Term
LOS ANGELES - Maria E. Stratton will serve a third four-year term as the federal public defender for the Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles and six surrounding counties.
"I'm delighted," U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., chief of the federal court for the district, said. "She has done, I think, a wonderful job. Morale is up, she hires good people and she has raised the level of professionalism in the office. She runs a good shop."
John S. Gordon, the U.S. attorney for the district, called Stratton "a dedicated public defender who inspires her deputies to vigorously represent indigent defendants facing federal prosecution in this district.
"While our offices may not see eye to eye on exactly how to dispose of certain cases, she promotes a respectful and productive dialogue that occasionally persuades us to soften our positions."
Stratton was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.
Mary M. Schroeder, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, made the announcement.
The judges of the 9th Circuit select federal public defenders. Stratton, a former partner at the firm now known as Lightfoot, Vandevelde, Sadowsky, Medvene & Levine, was appointed to the job in 1993. She was reappointed in 1997. Her latest appointment begins June 21.
Stratton supervises a staff of 160, including 60 attorneys. The Los Angeles federal public defender's office, which represents indigent defendants charged with federal crimes, is the largest in the West. The office also represents defendants seeking federal capital habeas review of state death-penalty cases.
Stratton is credited with helping to keep off death row the first two federal death-penalty defendants tried in Los Angeles in modern history. White supremacist Buford Furrow pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence, and Mexican Mafia member Mariano "Chuy" Martinez was convicted but the jury refused to sentence him to death for his racketeering activities, which included murder.
Stratton, along with other federal public defenders, mounted a vigorous effort to keep the federal government from locking up indefinitely illegal immigrants who have served their time for crimes committed. She also is credited with diversifying her office staff.
Stratton was a 1992 recipient of the California State Bar Association's Wiley W. Manuel award for pro bono legal services. She attended the University of Southern California and the University of California, Boalt Hall.
"Her energy and enthusiasm for the job inspires the rest of us," Dennis J. Landin, Stratton's chief deputy, said.
David Houston
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