CPDA Names Barbara B. Fargo Public Defender of the Year 2003 5/13/2003
From: James McWilliams, 510-272-6671, or Michael E. Cantrall, 916-362-1690 ext. 8, both for the California Public Defenders Association SACRAMENTO, May 13 -- Barbara B. Fargo, a Santa Clara County Deputy Public Defender, has been named the 2003 Public Defender of the Year by the California Public Defender's Association. This award recognizes the California public defender who best exemplifies the commitment, creativity, legal ability, intelligence and energy that public defenders bring to representing the indigent. In 1971 when Barbara Fargo went to law school at the University of California, Berkeley she knew that she wanted to be a public defender. The prison reform movement was active and prison riots commanded the headlines; the names of the prisons "Attica," "Soledad" evoked powerful feelings. Fargo felt "that the system was skewed against defendants; that the system was not responsive to the needs of the people." She joined the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office in 1976 and has been there ever since. She has handled everything from misdemeanor trials to supervising the Special Trials Unit which handled all the special circumstance murder cases, most of the other murder cases, and other complex litigations cases requiring extensive preparation. Fargo has lectured widely throughout California to criminal defense lawyers on how to litigate a variety of cases over the last 17 years. She also worked as head of the office's Research, Law and Motion Department authoring winning briefs in many major cases. Fargo is respected and beloved by her colleagues in the Santa Clara County Public Defender's Office who routinely seek her advice, and honored her with their own Norwood Nedom Award in 2000. Fargo also received the Ruth Young Award in 1997 given annually by Women Defenders. Fargo, who is married and has a daughter, attributes her ability to maintain a sense of perspective about her to work to having a family. She says about her work, "I used to see my work as representing the underdog. Now I think it's more complex than that...I still believe in representing the individual. On paper, this person may have done a lot of awful things. But I believe in going in and trying to make sense of what happened, trying to explain to the jury why this person did what he or she did -- in other words, to seek justice." Fargo received the award at this year's state convention in Sacramento, California during the month. The California Public Defender's Association (CPDA) is a professional association dedicated to maintaining excellence in the legal representation of indigent defendants through continuing education and training and representing the professional interests of public defenders. For more information contact: James McWilliams, Chair California Public Defenders Association Awards Committee 510-272-6671 or Michael E. Cantrall, CPDA Executive Director 916-362-1690 x 8 |