Francis T. Mandanici, an assistant public defender in New Haven, Conn., is not a person who takes no for an answer. He’s defending the parole violation case of State v. Christopher Dumas, and argued to the Appellate Court that his client was deprived of evenhanded rulings. The trial judge refused to order an eye exam of the victim and key witness, New Haven legal aid lawyer Sheldon Taubman, yet gave the state permission to fingerprint Dumas.
Since both rulings dealt with the issue of identifying the defendant, Mandanici argued that the principle of “evenhanded application” of justice was violated. That argument and five others were rejected by the Appellate Court, which ruled that Mandanici failed to brief the issue and thereby abandoned it.
