A farewell to Nate

We are starting to undergo some changes here at the ADO. Nathan Webb started at the ADO, his first job out of KU Law School, in October 2000. For the last two years, Nathan served in a duel role as an appellate defender and as a visiting assistant professor at the Washburn Law School. In that position, Nathan taught a course called criminal appellate advocacy, where he worked with a small number of students on actual ADO cases, some of which are pending before the Kansas Supreme Court right now. (See here and here). Nathan developed that class from scratch and was extremely well received by the faculty and students at Washburn. (See here).

Nathan's wife just finished her Ph.D. at KU in May and accepted a position at Kent State in Ohio. They just relocated there last week. Nathan and Sanna are also expecting their first child this fall, so there are just tons of changes in their household.

Nathan had a lot of highlight cases in his six-year tenure at the ADO including: State v. McElroy, (KSC, vacating failure to register conviction for defective complaint and improper venue); State v. Norton, (KSC, reversing drug convictions based on newly discovered evidence); State v. Boyd, (KSC, reversing drug convictions based on Fourth Amendment violation); and State v. Wilson, (COA, reversing drug conviction based on Fourth Amendment violation).

But I think I will always remember Nathan most fondly for State v. Jackson, No. 87,961 (Kan. App. 2002) (hereinafter "the thong-song case"), an unpublished win in November 2002, reversing a Sedgwick County aggravated robbery case due to prosecutorial misconduct. Here is an exceprt from Nathan's brief (which I truly hope to be able to make available on .pdf someday so that you can see the pictures):

About 1:00 a.m., the hit dance song by Sisqo "The Thong Song" came on over the club’s loudspeakers.(R. V, 315). The enormously popular song, for which Sisqo was nominated for a Grammy, describes the singers love of G-String underwear:

She had dumps like a truck.. truck.... truck, Thighs like what... what... what, Baby move your butt... butt... butt. I think I’ll sing it again... (Refrain)... I love it when your booty goes... I love it when your booty shows... that Thong, tha-thong, thong, thong.

When the song came on, Mr. Jackson immediately noticed a cute woman "dancing sexually" on top of a large speaker that acted as a stage surrounding the dance floor. (R. IV, 240). According to at least one witness, the girls were pulling down their pants and exposing their thong underwear to the crowd. (R. V, 315).

I will be taking Nathan's position at Washburn Law School this fall. I am looking forward to a little change of scenery and I am hoping to really educate students to the critically important work that defenders perform in our legal system. That's my goal anyway! I will still be at the ADO, too. I'm not actually sure the time split yet.