You don't step into the breach in Death Penalty work without having a strong personality, and Neal Walker was as strong as he was tall.  Man, he was tall!  I first met Neal in the early 1990's during the fights over the PD system.  We had met for a long time under the mediation of  Lester Gauthier in Lafayette and tried to hammer a compromise between the public defenders and LaCDL.  There was a board meeting and Neal could not see compromise on the Right to Counsel.  We disagreed on that, but over the years as we observed each other's work we found a lot of common ground.  He put the clients first,  and if he knew you cared about your client he never let politics muddy up the water.

Neal was loved most by those lawyers who worked Death Penalty cases because he was supportive but demanding, and he was willing to step in and help for the benefit of the clients.  He never hesitated to pitch in for LaPDA Seminars and other opportunities to improve lawyering in Louisiana.  Neal understood that the principled fight did not require personal animosity. He would never consider withholding help or advice because of any political question or disagreement. LCAC thrived under his leadership because it was well known across the State that if you were in trouble in a Death Penalty case,  you could call on Neal for help with it.

Once when the issue of the Anders/ Benjamin procedure came up, somebody sent me an e mail in which Neal said "Paul Marx should be spanked" for getting the Supreme Court to reaffirm it.  I contacted him and we laughed about it and agreed to a debate at the upcoming LaPDA Seminar.  We had a spirited exchange on the question of whether there is any such thing as a "frivolous error" from the client's perspective.  It was educational in a different way from most CLE programs,  and we had lawyers standing up in the audience and raising other provocative issues.  I don't think Neal ever shied away from talking substance and empirical evidence.

One of my favorite things about Neal was that his priority being the client,  he was not afraid to heap praise on folks whose political position was directly opposite his own.  A major problem in "Indigent Defense" is this Bush/Cheney type paradigm where a lot of advocates cut off anybody who is not "on board" (ie - does not agree).  The problem is that reduces the vigor of debate and fails to test the issue.  Neal was the exception.  He once referred to a Capital Appellate Brief by a very controversial Public Defender as "an excellent work", and that was in a public forum at a Seminar.  Clients first.  That was certainly something to admire.

When I had my back surgery I remembered the courage Neal showed after the catastrophic accident he suffered on his bicycle, and how you literally never heard complaint or comment about him going through that.  He moved through it and got back to work.  That remains an inspiration.

We last spoke at the LACDL Tate Dinner in New Orleans last December. When he got his award he didn't talk about what he had done or how great the things he was planning would end up.  He talked about how sad he was to go to Criminal Court and see clients without lawyers, even now.  He expressed outrage that a lady had no counsel and all she needed was a 10 minute consult to convince the judge to release her.  Just the clients.   As everybody filed out  that night I congratulated him on his award and then again when I met a special person in his life.   Neal was giggly happy as he introduced me to his fiancé and I told him I was happy to have him join the "old married" club. He reminded me his blues band could play for an LaPDA party or social.   We talked about injustice and anecdotes from cases as lawyers always do.  We talked about how funny some of the ridiculous things that happen in court can be.  We talked about how outrageous.  I remember thinking that he seemed to be one of the happiest people I knew at that point.  I never would have imagined that he would be gone any time soon.  But the thing about a death penalty lawyer is that because of him,  there are lots of other folks who live on: its all about the clients.

G Paul Marx - Trial Lawyer 1/26/07