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The Advocate Features:
Rebecca Murrell
Attending the University of Kentucky, majoring in history, then Northern Kentucky’s Chase School of Law is how Rebecca Murrell, contract public defender in Bullitt County, began her legal career. During law school, Rebecca clerked at a law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the insurance defense field and continued to work there upon graduation.
Rebecca then moved to Louisville to marry her husband, David, who was the Deputy Public Defender at that time, and went into private practice conducting a lot of criminal and appellate work. In 1987, Rebecca took over as the contract public defender in Bullitt County.
Currently, 95% of Rebecca’s caseload is public defender work. When she first started in Bullitt County, the caseload was around 320 to 340 closures per year. Now it is at 550 closures per year.
Rebecca finds the juvenile portion of her practice the most challenging yet frustrating. It is challenging in the fact that the laws governing juveniles have become more stringent, the juvenile statutes are poorly written and there are so many situations that juveniles today can find themselves in. Until this past year, Rebecca had never had a juvenile waived as an adult.
The juvenile portion is frustrating in that juvenile court is more drawn out. "The case never dies," states Rebecca. "Cases do not have an end or closure so you need to always be familiar with the case." Rebecca feels that her juvenile work could alone take up all of her time. "All these children need is a little love and attention." Unfortunately, these children often go back into the same environment that caused their problems in the first place and never get this love and attention. Rebecca feels that the system aims at being punitive instead of providing the help that these children really need.
The hardest cases that Rebecca feels that she deals with are the sex abuse cases. She states, "High penalties depend on the credibility of one witness against another. Clients do not understand that a person’s word is sufficient evidence if the jury believes it beyond a reasonable doubt."
To put things back into perspective, Rebecca enjoys spending time with her family. She lives in Louisville with her husband David and her two children, ages fifteen and twelve.
Rebecca feels that some attorneys, including herself, have a problem with treating misdemeanors as routine when you have a heavy caseload. "We must remind ourselves that to that person facing the charges it is extremely important."
Steve Mirkin, directing attorney for the Elizabethtown field office, has been closely familiar with the work of Rebecca Murrell for the last four to five years. He states, "Rebecca handles as big a caseload as anyone in the state whether part-time or full-time and has the uniform respect of all court personnel. As a guy who fields the complaints from clients, she has extraordinary high respect from her clients. The Department really appreciates her."
Thanks Rebecca for being a prime example of the quality advocates in the state of Kentucky. Your hard work and dedication to the DPA is greatly appreciated!
Lisa Hayden, DPA Intern
Lisa is a senior at Georgetown College and is planning
to attend the University of Kentucky School of Law in the fall.