The right to defend
The Daily Report quoted Erica J. Hashimoto, assistant professor of law, in an article about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s request for more data on the right of criminal defendants to represent themselves on appeal.

“I think at the very least it calls into question our assumption that it’s necessarily a bad idea for a defendant to represent himself or herself,” said Hashimoto, who teaches criminal law, evidence and sentencing.

“It makes me very uncomfortable on the one hand to say we’re going to find you competent to stand trial, but we’re going to say you don’t get constitutional rights—because the right of self representation is a constitutional right,” she also said. “At the same time, courts get put in very uncomfortable situations, and it does feel like it’s very unfair to a mentally ill defendant to watch him represent himself or herself. And you can just see the train wreck about to happen.”

A question of population
Congressional Quarterly quoted UGA political science professor Charles Bullock in an article about the likelihood of a Republican challenger unseating Georgia Congressman John Barrow. Bullock noted that in the district in question, Georgia’s 12th, 45 percent of the voting population is African American.

“There’s not a district anywhere in the country with that kind of population makeup that is represented by a Republican,” said Bullock.

Is fair value fair?
Dennis Beresford, a part-time lecturer at the J.M. Tull School of Accounting in the Terry College of Business, was quoted in an American Banker article about the role of fair value accounting in the evaporation of large segments of credit markets.

“Clearly there are business decisions that are being influenced by the accounting, and companies are having to account for things at fair values that are not based on deep, broad markets,” said Beresford, also a former Financial Accounting Standards Board chairman and current chairman of Fannie Mae’s audit committee. “The liquidity of the market is such that a lot of prices are probably not what most people would feel are fair and appropriate in normal circumstances. But that’s still what the market price is.”

Acceptance of failure
The Irish Times, a newspaper headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, quoted Andrew Ward, assistant professor of management in the Terry College of Business, in an article about the possibility of bright futures awaiting several top financial managers whose companies have floundered recently.

“The financial sector is transaction driven,” Ward said. “Some deals work out well, some don’t work out well. Failure is accepted.”

In a split-second
UGA Police Chief Jimmy Williamson was quoted in a segment on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric about state legislatures, including Georgia’s, that are debated whether guns belong on college campuses. The debate centers around allowing persons with concealed weapons permits to bring their weapons on to campus.

Saying that more guns make real threats harder to spot, Williamson said, “There’s only going to be a split-second (to react) there. And I could see innocent people being shot by police.”

Paying for it
Michael Doyle, director of UGA’s Center for Food Safety, was quoted in an article in The Hill about how legislators hope heavier federal financing of animal research can keep Americans safe.

“The frequency and size of food-borne outbreaks in the U.S. will likely increase dramatically as more of our food is imported,” Doyle said.