 |
Tom Hillier, Change Agent.
Photo by Adam Hyla |
Drugs. Guns. Fraud. Immigration. Those are the words issued like thunderbolts from the hands of FEMA, the FBI, the IRS, or ICE. When they strike, people go to the federal Public Defender.
“We represent people who don’t have enough money to pay for legal representation, as most people accused of crimes don’t,” says Tom Hillier, 60, the third-longest serving public criminal defense attorney in the nation.
Does he like the work? “They pay me to resist authority,” he says. “What could be better?”
Blessed by geography, the legal arguments in this state, with its tribal lands and international border, are never boring. Hillier takes the issue of the sentencing of Ahmed Ressam, caught in Port Angeles in 1999 with nitroglycerin and four timing devices, before the Supreme Court next month. Ressam’s cooperation put meat on the frame of the FBI’s knowledge about Al Qaeda; he’s mentioned in the pre-9/11 memo “Bin Ladin determined to strike in U.S.”
Ressam has been “a showcase for prosecution in how to deal with terroristic events,” says Hillier. It shows how much easier it is to extract information in court “than when you’re torturing people in secret.”
|
