Introduction

Q: Hi, I'm here today with Joseph Palmisano. He's a criminal defense attorney in the Phoenix metropolitan area, in Arizona. He has well over 20 years of experience in criminal defense. I appreciate you being here today, Mr. Palmisano. How are you doing?

A:I'm doing fine, Richard. Thank you for asking. How are you?

Q: Doing good. Without delay, we might as well get right into the questions. My first one for you is: as you've been a criminal defense attorney for a long time, what got you into it in the first place?

A:Well, I first started back when I was licensed in the state of Arizona in 1989. As soon as I was sworn in in October of 1989, I started a private practice. I've always worked in a private practice. I've never worked for the government. What got me interested was essentially starting off with people who came into the office and had criminal cases. Although at the time I was doing predominantly civil work to start with, I was working for three banks, I started to get an interest in what I deemed were injustices that were occurring in the criminal justice system. So, I started taking those cases pretty much within two or three months of practicing. The firm I practiced at allowed me to explore that avenue. So, that's how I started off.

Q: Over the past 20+ was your gut feeling right that these were the kind of people you wanted to help and work with?

A:Yes. What happened was that after doing a number of these cases and seeing how the system worked in practice, I was dissatisfied with what I saw as basically injustices occurring to individuals who were, in my opinion, victims of the system. Now, what I mean by that is that in my experience, I had observations of a number of government entities, whether they be for the federal or state government, that prosecuted people. The people that were being prosecuted were not only not necessarily guilty of the crime with which they were charged, but they were being persuaded by, either private council or public defenders, to essentially plead guilty to things they were not guilty of. What I found was that, in my opinion, people were more interested in maintaining the system as opposed to generating any sort of justice for the individual. So, essentially what I've done for the past 24 years, is make it my personal endeavor to ensure that I get justice for my clients.