She and a staff of other lawyers from the Philadelphia firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal and Lewis, took on the case of Lisa Lambert. In 1992 Lambert had been convicted of a slashing murder in Lancaster. Certainly, Lancaster is a dreadfully Republican, and therefore as bigoted place as even the worst parts of the State.
Lambert's case had been appealed through the state courts. Of course, this is Pennsylvania, so she didn't get a hint of "justice." Her federal habeas corpus was before Judge Stewart Dalzell.
Fair judges are almost as rare as good lawyers, and Lambert purely lucked-out. Dalzell is, if not fair, at least he's rational. A hell of a lot of judges are as worthless as Rambo, but that's another story.
Judge Dalzell asked Rainville to represent Lambert on the habeas corpus, "pro bono," or for free. She accepted and proceeded to expose some of the utter corruption in the Lancaster County prosecutors office.
Using surprising energy and skill, Rainville showed a pattern of gigantic legal abuses against Lambert. She not only got her client off, but caused the Judge to order a criminal investigation of the Lancaster County authorities. We praise her! May all good things come her way!
An interesting side note to the story was the reaction of many citizens in lancaster. Being Republicans, they didn't at all approve of letting someone go just because they happened to be innocent. To them, guilt had nothing to do with the matter. This girl had been convicted, albeit by lies and faked evidence. The good people of Lancaster figured that that should be enough.
They certainly didn't want to bother with a little thing like innocence. They had their scapegoat and they were offended that innocence should interfere with their vindictiveness.
To the intellectual giants of Lancaster County, the real bad-guy was Judge Dalzell. He'd had the temerity to set loose an innocent person. Where does he get off?!
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