S.J. ATTORNEY BOUND FOR ARMENIA TO TRAIN COUNTRY’S FIRST PUBLIC DEFENDERS
Scott Smith
Record Staff Writer
Stockton Record, CA
Aug. 14, 2006
STOCKTON – Attorney Amy Righter is about to travel a really long way
for a very tough job.
She clocked out her last day of work Friday with the San Joaquin
County’s Public Defenders Office, where she has represented the
county’s poorest accused of anything from petty crimes to murder.
Next month, she will pack her bags and fly halfway around the world
to Armenia. There she will help the fledgling democracy establish
its own public defenders office from the ground up.
Righter – whose shy demeanor belies an undying drive to fight for
the underdog – said she is ready for her next adventure.
"Yes, it’s completely daunting," said Righter, 45. "It’s exciting
and daunting at the same time."
Righter will be one of five Western attorneys, mostly Americans,
sent to Armenia with an American Bar Association project called
Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative.
For the next year or more, Righter will train about 30 Armenian
attorneys who make up the country’s public defenders office, launched
Jan. 1 under an amendment to that country’s constitution.
Armenia, an arid country wedged between Turkey and Azerbaijan, was
among the first satellite republics of the Soviet Union to break
away in 1991. Since then it has struggled to establish an independent
economy and legal system.
In a part of the world populated with regimes known for trampling
on human rights, Armenia has made strides in legal reform, said
Mary Greer, a senior criminal law advisor for the American Bar law
initiative project based in Washington, D.C.
The American Bar Association works in more than a dozen eastern
European and central Asian countries. Armenia is one of few trying
to balance its justice system by adopting a public defenders office,
Greer said.
The old system tended to favor prosecutors and deny the accused of
their rights, by Western standards, she said. Those charged with
crimes had access to attorneys, but the reform puts public defenders
all in one office funded by the government.
"Armenia really is at the forefront," Greer said. "They’re really a
leader in that way."
Yet, development work is tough and brings its own frustrations at
times, she added.
In addition to learning the idiosyncrasies of Armenian law, Righter
will have to adjust to the culture and cuisine. But she is not a
complete neophyte to Armenia.
Raised in Pennsylvania, she majored in Russian studies at the
University of Texas, Austin. She capped her university degree with
a monthlong tour in the late 1980s through Soviet cities such as
Tashkent, Tbilisi and Moscow.
Last year, she spent three months in Yerevan, the Armenian capital,
visiting a friend already working there.
"I look forward to getting immersed again in the language," she said.
Righter, who lives in the Bay Area and had commuted to work in
Stockton, has worked in San Joaquin County’s Public Defender’s Office
for nearly eight years. She hopes there is a position here for her
once she returns in a year or two.
Her last few days at work in Stockton were consumed with divvying up
her cases to colleagues, such as Deputy Public Defender Roger Ross.
Ross said Righter is known among her colleagues for her apparent calm
demeanor, but she is not at all shy about speaking out when she spots
an injustice.
Like most attorneys in the Public Defender’s Office, she identifies
with the underdogs. That will serve her well in Armenia, Ross said.
"We all read about these opportunities in the former Soviet republics,"
Ross said. "She’s actually doing it."