Monday, December 16, 2013

U.S. Lawyer Works To Change The Afghan Legal System --- In 2008, attorney Kimberly Motley picked up and left her native Milwaukee, where she lived with her husband and two kids, and moved to Kabul. It wasn't just the first time she's been to a conflict zone, it was the first time she'd ever been out of the country. -- And, to be frank, says Motley, she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing either. She thought it'd be a good career move — work in Afghanistan for a year with the State Department, train lawyers there, learn and make some money, then return to her work as a public defender in the U.S. --- But what she saw in Afghanistan shocked her. Motley remembers a prison tour in which prisoners were making tools. Looking around the room, she noticed how the prisoners far outnumbered the guards, and imagined how easily an attack might happen. "In addition ... there wasn't any running water, it was extremely cold because there wasn't any heat, any electricity, you hear coughing everywhere," she remembers. "It was a very eye-opening experience." -- Motley had worked for years as a public defender and believes in the right to a fair trial. So she was shocked to see prisoners languishing without any legal help in Afghanistan's jails. She became the first foreign lawyer to have a practice in Afghanistan, making it her mission to give legal representation to foreigners imprisoned in Afghanistan and then, later, to Afghans. - More, NPR, at: http://www.npr.org/2013/12/15/251030896/u-s-attorney-works-to-change-the-afghan-legal-system

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