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Caribbean Immigrant's Key Role Is To Protect The Rights Of “Indigent” Federal Criminal Defendants In State Of Delaware, Came To U.S. As Teenager

Posted by CaribShout on August 24, 2009 at 7:46pm

As a teenage student in the Caribbean, Edson A. Bostic, didn’t learn much about Delaware. Back then, students in the region were taught more about England’s White Cliffs of Dover than about Jamaica’s Blue Mountains, or Guyana’s Kaietur and Great Falls. Of course, he learned even less, if anything at all, about the U.S. federal court system. More than 40 years after leaving Barbados with his parents, Percival and Gwendolyn Bostic, and settling in Ardmore, a suburb of Philadelphia, the Caribbean attorney knows Delaware and Philadelphia like the palm of his hand and traverses the federal court in Wilmington almost every day. That’s because Bostic is the Federal Public Defender in Delaware. With a team of seven lawyers, soon to grow to 9, and with an ample support staff, he protects the rights of poor defendants in federal court. “I am the chief criminal defense counsel for federal court purposes in Delaware. The key function of the federal public defender’s office is to represent indigent defendants in criminal cases in the District,” was the way he summarized his prime responsibility. “We are separate and distinct from any other state defender’s office. We only handle cases in federal courts.” In essence, people charged with federal criminal offences and can’t afford an attorney usually can turn to his office for help. Everything from robbery, child pornography, drug offences and re-entry cases involving immigrants who were deported but returned to the U.S. to complex fraud cases land on his desk and it’s his job to ensure that those accused of federal crimes and tried in Delaware are effectively defended in court. “We handle about 300-plus cases every year, up from about 10o per year,” he said. “The caseload is growing.” Bostic, the father of three daughters –Corinne, Michelle and Kyra – was sworn in as federal defender in 2007 after exhaustive background checks before he was granted security clearance and the green light to assume duties. Actually, he had started as acting public defender in 2006 and then moved up to the top position the following year. Interestingly, on the day he took the oath of office, he used his mother’s Bible to swear to uphold the constitution of the United States and carry out his duties faithfully “so help me God.” It’s a four year appointment in the first instance but it can be renewed for a second term. “It’s my hope and expectation that I would be here (on the job in Wilmington) for another four years when it comes up for renewal in 2011,” he said. A graduate of Philadelphia’s TempleUniversity, which awarded him a Bachelor of Science degree in 1977 and Rutgers University School of Law in New Jersey in 1980, Bostic has had extensive experience as a trial attorney and litigator in civil and criminal cases in Pennsylvania and Delaware. Whether it was as a law clerk in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City, a public defense attorney upstate New York in Bingham, a trial lawyer for the Defender Association of Philadelphia or as an “associate” in the large Philadelphia law firm of Cozen O’Connor, the West Indian understands the federal or state court systems. Incidentally, while working at a private law firm he had to represent a client in a case in the Caribbean. “That was an interesting experience,” he said. Unlike the U.S. Attorney, who is the top federal law enforcement official in a District and reports to Eric Holder, the new Attorney-General, Bostic’s position falls under the U.S. court system instead. To get the job, his appointment had to be approved by all of the judges in the federal Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit which hears cases in an area that stretches from the U.S. Virgin Islands and Pennsylvania to Delaware. Like most West Indians, Bostic credits the early foundation he received in his birthplace and his parents’ insistence on getting a sound education and working hard for where he is today. “I came along and saw my parents working hard to provide for the family and to give us a sound education and that has stayed with me to this day,” he said. “For them it was education, hard work and living within the confines of the law.” So, it explains why the advice he offers to Caribbean immigrant, indeed to anyone who seeks his office’s assistance: “ensure you have a sound education, work hard and don’t break the law.” However, Bostic has a major regret: his parents weren’t alive to attend his swearing in, “to see me move into this position. It would have warmed their hearts.” Hence, his decision to use his mother’s Bible to take the oath. “That’s the closest I came to having them there,” he added By: Tony Best

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