Home  B. John Burns Blog Some New Shameless Self-Promotion
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Some New Shameless Self-Promotion |
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By B John Burns
June 25, 2010
It’s been almost two months since I’ve contributed to my blog. A number of people have actually commented about that to me. I’ve had two opportunities in the past week to catch up with many of my old friends in the state public defender system. Last Friday, of course, I had the privilege of doing the case law update at the PDA seminar at Tama. That was a good day all around. From what I saw, it was an excellent seminar, and well-attended.
And then, on Wednesday of this week, I stopped by the Lucas Building to say goodbye to my old secretary, Sue Dillon, one of the thousands of state employees to make their way to lifeboats as the state struggles to overcome the damage of the iceberg of the recession. Sue started out in 1986 as my secretary and, like all my secretaries of the past 25 years, escaped to another position within the system. She was a good worker, easy to deal with (you all know this), and she laughed at most of my jokes.
It’s not that there has been absolutely nothing to write about. The Iowa Supreme Court, although not terribly prolific in recent months, has published a number of interesting decisions, including the trio of cases two weeks ago dealing with the loss of good time for failure to complete sex offender treatment while incarcerated. At least two were victories for the defendants – but all apparently have long since completed their prison sentences. Congratulations to Phil Mears for his persistence.
The United States Supreme Court, on the other hand, appears to be turning out more work than in recent years. A lot of it involves more of what I to than what you do. Next week marks the end of the October 2009 term, and we usually see a number of long, important opinions on the last day of the term. Who will ever forget Coy v. Iowa?
But, like I say, I’ve been pretty quiet for the last couple of months. The primary reason is that I’ve been focusing on other priorities. The reason I bring this up is that I realize there are two nagging questions that one never stops asking. The first, of course, is “How do I get my own copy of 4A Iowa Practice: Criminal Procedure?” I suggest you band together on that one and go to Tomas. Even in a recession, the State Public Defender should be supplying all of his employees (not just the attorneys) with copies of 4A Iowa Practice: Criminal Procedure. Or, if that fails, contact your West representative.
The other question, is “Where and when can I see John Burns perform his original tunes?”
The answer to this question is the primary reason the blog has laid dormant this spring. As many of you know, two weeks ago I completed my Washington to Washington Mini-Tour. At the end of April, I performed at Kramerbooks and Afterwords Café at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. And then, three weeks ago, I did three shows at different locations in the Seattle, Washington area. I called it a mini-tour because there was nothing in between but central Iowa. But, within a five-week period of time, I had the opprotunity to drive from coast to coast. That's pretty cool.
Tomorrow I fly to San Diego to perform next Tuesday at a fund raiser for the Bayside Community Center in the Linda Vista neighborhood. Two years ago, I wrote a song for the Linda Vista Multi-Cultural Fair and played it at the opening ceremonies. I can honestly say that my song brought the crowd to its feet (the rest of the story is that, just before I went on, they announced the winners of the junior high school essay contest and, once that was over, everybody got up to leave). There is a page about that song and that event on my website, at http://www.bjohnburns.com/custom_2.html. The page includes a demo recording of the song.
If you can’t make it to San Diego on Tuesday, there’s countless opportunities right here at home, including at least two Des Moines Farmers Markets (and two Prairie City Farmers Markets), and a show on the AE Stage at noon during the Thursday of the Iowa State Fair. You can see my whole schedule on my website at www.bjohnburns.com and on my MySpace page, www.MySpace.com/bjohnburns (where you can also hear demos of some of my newest songs).
Quite a few of you have shown up recently at some of my shows at Woody’s Smoke Shack, Amici Espresso, Mars Café and other venues. Thank you.
For those of you who don’t live in the Des Moines area, I’ve got some shows coming up in other parts of the state, mostly in early September. On September 3, the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, I’ll be back at CoffeeCat in Mason City. I did a couple of shows there last summer and some of the Mason City people came out. The 3rd is the first leg of a mini-tour to the Twin Cities, as I’ll be back at the Black Sheep Coffee Café in South St. Paul on the 4th.
And for people in eastern Iowa, especially the Quad Cities, I’ll be at Mojo’s in the River Music Experience in Davenport on Saturday, September 11 (can you remember that date?) from 7 to 9 p.m. I’ve been wanting to get into Mojo’s for a number of years, so I’m really looking forward to that one.
If you come to one of my shows, I promise I won’t talk about law.
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Criminal Procedure 4A
By B.John Burns This reference offers a comprehensive analysis of Iowa criminal procedure. It analyzes criminal procedure, including pre-trial, trial, sentencing, and post-conviction procedure. Provides a comprehensive manual covering all procedural aspects of an Iowa criminal case, from the time you are first engaged to represent a suspected or charged individual, through the final steps of a criminal appeal or state or federal post conviction relief proceeding. Separate divisions review evidentiary issues in criminal trials, constitutional provisions affecting criminal cases, and the representation of inmates in prison litigation.  
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