Robert Rigg, BN’75, AS’75, LW’78, associate professor of law and director of the Law School’s Criminal Defense Program, recently was quoted in a Washington Post story on immigration strategy and the recent illegal immigrant raids. Read the entire story online.
He told the Washington Post, “I think Postville left a bitter taste for a lot of people. It paints a pretty bleak picture of American criminal justice, and I don’t think it’s the type of thing the judiciary or main Justice wants to replicate.”
Rigg also was quoted in the New York Times on the trials after the raid at the Agriprocessors plant in Postville, Iowa, where 389 illegal immigrants were apprehended. Read the entire article online.
In addition, Rigg testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, Refugees, Border Security and International Law Holds Hearing on Immigration Raids on June 24.
In his testimony, he outlined major problems with the handling of the trials after the Postville raid. Rigg said, “The biggest problem that I have identified — or at least I feel this committee should address — is the compression of time that was imposed on defense counsel in this particular case. That caused a cascade of other errors that could have occurred and may have affected these guilty pleas.” The full transcript is available online.
Rigg joined Drake in 1995 after serving as first assistant and staff attorney in the Polk County Public Defender’s Office.
He established the Criminal Defense Program at Drake and teaches criminal law courses including Criminal Defense and Mental Disabilities and Forensic Toxicology.
Rigg also developed the Iowa Criminal Law Newsletter, a publication on the CDP, and the Robert J. Kromminga Award for the outstanding student attorney in the CDP.