John J. Ritenour Jr.

The words "lazy" and "incompetent" are often thrown around without much thought, especially in describing lawyers. In this case, I believe both terms are fully merited. John J. Ritenour Jr. is an appallingly bad attorney who should be disbarred. In 2015, Ritenour was assigned to serve as a public ...defender for a client appealing a death sentence. He met briefly with that client once. He failed to follow up on any of the evidence the client presented him. Let me be clear, this wasn't a case where a lawyer declined to present looney-tunes nonsense that was easily disproven - such situations do happen frequently. This was a case where Ritenour failed to even perform a cursory check of the client's evidence, as if he had already made up his mind beforehand to not present the evidence. He then submitted a poorly copy-pasted brief with the wrong client's name on it (seriously, ChatGPT could write a better brief), unsigned by his client (clients are required to sign legal briefs such as this, but Ritenour couldn't be bothered to meet with his client a second time to secure the signature), and then told the court his client "must lose". It doesn't matter if the client was guilty or not - that's for the court to decide, not the client's own lawyer. If he was truly convinced his client was guilty, Ritenour could have - should have - asked the court to provide his client with a different lawyer, but instead decided to subvert the very system of law itself to intentionally sink his client's case. Appalling behavior. See https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-323/280300/20230922191006608_Gamboa--Final%20Petition%2009-22%20rtf.pdf for a Supreme Court petition regarding this incident.

Spent only 10 minutes speaking to prior lawyer, met client only once, declined to use provided evidence. Then turned in a replica habeas brief for a different defendant leaving that defendant’s name and grammar / spelling mistakes. Appalling! https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/us/supreme-court...-death-row-inmate.html?unlocked_article_code=1.OE0.dS5-.l9xcUA2ByI9N&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Last of a dying breed, knows his job very well. He was everything you want in a lawyer honest, patient took all the time we needed to review videos and paperwork. Very thorough in everything he did knew the rules man this guy is the best and he does it cause he likes to do a great job and he does. I ...can’t really explain how he works cause people just don’t care as much as this man. Helped my dad out and my dads case was dismissed due to “buds” expertise. #1 in my book.... thanks Bud for everything