2026 Western All-Star Conference & Confabulation

2026 Western All-Star Conference & Confabulation
About this Event

2026 Western All-Star Conference & Confabulation

Federal Defender Services of Idaho is excited to announce the line-up for the 2026 Annual Western All-Star Conference & Confabulation. We are at JUMP in the Pioneer Room this year for an in-person, two-day event on September 3rd - 4th.

Cocktail Party Sponsored by IACDL at JUMP (The Deck) is set for Friday September 4th at 5pm.

CLE pending approval with the Idaho State Bar (Thusday: 5.75 credits including 1 ethics credit ; Friday: 6.25 credits including 2 ethics credits)

Tickets

One day (Thursday or Friday only): $45

-or-

Two day (Thursday & Friday): $85

Speaker Biographies

Richard McWilliams graduated from the University of Nebraska College of Law in 2002. In October 2002, he reported for active duty as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Immediately after leaving active duty in August 2007, he entered the federal defense community, starting as an assistant federal public defender in the Alexandria office of the Federal Public Defender for the Eastern District of Virginia. In May 2009, he moved home after getting a job with the Douglas County (NE) Public Defender’s Office. This proved to be a short (but wonderful) stay because an AFPD position opened in the Omaha office, where he has been for the past 16 years. He became the Federal Public Defender in 2024

John Reichmuth is a Supervisory Assistant Federal Public Defender in Oakland, California. He has been involved in firearms training and litigation for more than 20 years. He has previously held certifications as an armorer (Beretta 90-series, Glock, M-16/AR-15/M4), range safety officer, and firearms instructor. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and clerked for the Hon. William Wayne Justice (E.D. Tx).

Juval O. Scott is a nationally recognized leader in public defense, civil rights, and sentencing reform. She joined The Bronx Defenders as its executive director in 2024 and is the first African American and woman of color to lead the almost 30-year-old organization.

Immediately prior to joining The Bronx Defenders, Scott served as the director of the National Sentencing Resource Counsel where she led a team responsible for formulating sentencing policy, engaging with the United States Sentencing Commission, and other agencies and organizations, and providing training and sentencing litigation support to federal defense practitioners throughout the country.

Previously, Scott was a federal public defender for the Western District of Virginia, after appointment by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Before that, she served as an attorney advisor with the Defender Services Office in Washington, DC., and as assistant public defender in the Milwaukee office of the Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, Inc. and with the Indiana Federal Community Defenders in Indianapolis, Indiana.

In addition to her public defense work, Scott has served as an adjunct professor at the Washington & Lee School of Law and regularly teaches on panel trainings and programs sponsored by the Defender Services Office Training Division, The National Criminal Defense College, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and its state affiliates, and other organizations dedicated to criminal legal and reform issues.

Scott is a proud graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, where she received her Bachelor of Science in Biology with a minor in Chemistry, and the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Alison K. Guernsey is the Herschel G. Langdon Clinical Professor of Trial Advocacy at University of Iowa College of Law where she directs the law school’s Federal Criminal Defense Clinic. Under her supervision, law students represent indigent people charged with federal offenses in the U.S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa, as well as various federal courts of appeals. Prof. Guernsey’s Clinic is one of only two trial-level federal criminal defense clinics in the nation. Following the passage of the First Step Act of 2018, Prof. Guernsey started the Clinic’s “Decarceration Project,” with the goals of seeking the release of people serving inordinately long terms of imprisonment---regardless of their crimes---and minimizing the impact of the carceral system on people once they are released. Before joining Iowa Law, Professor Guernsey was the Supervising Attorney with the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington; a term law clerk for the Honorable Michael J. Melloy, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; and a term law clerk for the Honorable Karen Nelson Moore, U.S Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Doug Nelson tried his first Felony to a jury in 1991, and since then has been doing that on a regular basis. He began his career in the criminal law as a prosecuting attorney but joined up with Keith Roark soon after and Keith and Doug stayed partners in a law firm for the next 28 years, until Keith retired from the practice. Doug stayed in private practice until joining up with Blaine County as their Chief of the Public Defender Office. From there he moved into the position he now occupies as Litigation Director for the Idaho State Public Defender. Doug has tried hundreds of Felonies to a verdict, including about a dozen M**der cases. He was certified by the Idaho Supreme Court as First-Chair Qualified in Death Penalty cases in the late 1990’s. He has testified in Idaho’s District Courts as an expert in Post Conviction Relief cases.

Sean Broderick is the National Litigation Support Administrator for the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts, Defender Services Office Training Division. He is responsible for the National Litigation Support Team, which is a resource for the federal judiciary, federal defender offices, and Criminal Justice Act (CJA) panel attorneys regarding issues involving electronic discovery and litigation support technology. Mr. Broderick is the co-chair of the Joint Working Group on Electronic Technology in the Criminal Justice System (JETWG), a joint Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and Department of Justice national working group which examines the use of technology in the federal criminal justice system and provides suggested practices for the efficient and cost-effective management of electronic discovery. He is a co-author of Criminal e-Discovery: A Pocket Guide for Judges (Federal Judicial Center, 2015) and a contributing author to The Sedona Conference's Primer on Managing Electronic Discovery in Small Cases (2023). Most recently, he co-authored "Understanding the Risks of Generative AI Discovery Review Results" in ABA Criminal Justice Magazine (May 2026).

John Ellis Before entering private practice, Mr. Ellis spent 13 years at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. as a trial attorney and a supervisory attorney. He currently handles a wide variety of criminal cases, including white-collar fraud, terrorism, computer crimes, child pornography offenses, and complex drug offenses. In addition to his trial work, Mr. Ellis is a certified cell phone examiner, and is known nationally for his work as a trainer in the area of digital forensics, electronic case management, and social media investigations. He routinely presents at the National Forensic College in New York City and the Capital Case Defense Seminar in California. Mr. Ellis serves as a member of the Legal Resource Committee as part of the Organization of Scientific Area Committees for Forensic Science (OSAC), which is administered by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is a founding member of the San Diego ESI Forum, an organization focused on educating the bar about electronic discovery. John is also an adjunct professor and the author of two chapters in Defending a Federal Criminal Case. Mr. Ellis graduated from the University of San Diego School of Law in 2003.

Katie Hurrelbrink is an appellate attorney at Federal Defenders of San Diego, Inc. After graduating from Michigan Law School, Katie clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals for Judge William Fletcher and the Northern District of Illinois for Judge Gary Feinerman. She won the San Diego Federal Bar Association’s Rising Attorney Award in 2024. In 2026, she and a team of colleagues were jointly named Federal Defenders of the Year by the Criminal Defense Bar Association for their habeas work on behalf of detained immigrants. This is Katie’s seventh year at Federal Defenders.

Maurice Chammah is the author of Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty and a staff writer at The Marshall Project, where he covers capital punishment and recently produced a podcast, The Last 12 Weeks, with Serial Productions and The New York Times.

Juliet Yackel is an attorney and capital mitigation specialist who has represented clients nationwide since 1992. Throughout her career, she has been recognized for developing compelling mitigation narratives that help decision-makers see the full humanity of the individuals she represents. By illuminating the complexity of her clients' lives—their strengths, struggles, trauma, resilience, and inherent dignity—she has helped prosecutors, judges, and juries consider alternatives to the death penalty.

A passionate advocate for individuals with intellectual disabilities, Juliet is dedicated to educating the next generation of attorneys and mitigation professionals on identifying, understanding, and effectively advocating for people with intellectual disabilities in the criminal legal system. To advance this mission, she founded the Intensive Intellectual Disability Conference, a week-long educational program devoted to protecting individuals with intellectual disabilities from wrongful exposure to the death penalty and equipping practitioners with the knowledge and skills necessary to provide effective representation.

With more than three decades of experience, Juliet continues to be a leading voice in capital defense, mitigation practice, and intellectual disability advocacy.

Thursday, September 3rd

🕑: 08:30 AM - 09:00 AM
Registration, Sign-in and Opening Remarks
🕑: 09:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Body-Worn and Cruiser Cameras: Rich McWilliams

Info: Law-enforcement-generated video files in criminal cases have, in a relatively short span of time, gone from rare to
common, from novelty to the norm. This presentation describes the rapid increase and pervasiveness of body-worn and cruiser camera footage use by law enforcement and prosecutors in their cases in chief. After a brief exploration of local law-enforcement policies and a non-technical technical
overview of the technology, the presentation provides the criminal-defense practitioner with a three-part plan to maximize the benefit of this often voluminous and lucrative type of evidence.

🕑: 10:15 AM - 10:30 AM
Break
🕑: 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Firearms: from Basic to Advanced: John Reichmuth

Info: This Presentation aims to cover firearms concepts from basic function and terminology to cutting edge topics including ghost guns and 3D-printed switches, experts, and constitutional litigation. Questions and case brainstorms encouraged!

🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Lunch (On Your Own) **Afternoon CLE Sign-in Required**
🕑: 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Putting Your Client on the Stand: Juval Scott

Info: One of the most stressful decisions any client can make is deciding to testify. This session will discuss how the defense team can assist in this process to allow the client to make the best decision for them. Specifically, this session will review: (1) tools to provide unbiased advice to clients regarding their constitutional right to testify in their own defense; (2) ethical obligations lawyers and team members should consider when evaluating whether a client should testify; and (3) ethical obligations lawyers and team members have once a client has decided to testify. At the conclusion, attendees will be able to: (1) recognize personal biases that influence advice provided to clients regarding their right to testify in their own defense; and (2) guidance on how to work from a client- centered perspective regarding client testimony and its role in the case.

🕑: 02:30 PM - 02:45 PM
Break
🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:45 PM
Ethics of Vouching: Alyson Guernsey

Info: Vouching is categorically unethical, and prosecutorial vouching can quietly and inappropriately tip the scales at trial. Through examples drawn from federal criminal practice, participants will learn to identify the telltale signs of vouching, from subtle “trust us” messaging to more overt appeals to government authority or unseen evidence. The session will also cover real-time responses: how to object with precision, shut it down with effective curative measures, and preserve a clean appellate record. Along the way, we’ll work to sharpen your own advocacy through interactive hypotheticals requiring participants to draw the line between appropriately persuasive and impermissible.

🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:45 PM
Despite Kohberger case, SODDI defense is alive and well in Idaho: Doug Nelson

Info: In October, 2014, a woman named Whitney Murphy was shot in the temple with a 12-gauge shotgun from a distance of 4 inches while returning to her farmhouse outside of Declo, Idaho. For 6 and a half years the case remained “open-unsolved.” Whitney’s husband, Jim Murphy, was arrested in March of 2021 and charged with first degree M**der. Before the State took over all public defense, Jim Murphy was represented by Cassia County public defenders, but was allowed to represent himself for a full year before Doug took over the case in late 2024.
Jim remained incarcerated for 4 and a half years while this case played out in District Court. On February 18th, 2026, a jury found Jim not guilty of killing his wife and he walked out of J*il a free man later that day.
The Alternate Perpetrator Defense was the key to his acquittal……………..

Friday, September 4th

🕑: 08:15 AM - 08:30 AM
Registration, Sign-in and Opening Remarks
🕑: 08:30 AM - 09:45 AM
Ethically Leveraging Generative AI to Enhance CJA Representation:

Info: Speakers: Sean Broderick & John Ellis: Generative AI tools are rapidly transforming how we use technology today. Legal work is no exception. This session will 1) describe what Generative AI is and how it differs from other forms of AI; 2) identify potential pitfalls for CJA panel attorneys and federal defenders when using Generative AI work in legal work; and 3) review practical and easy to use ways to leverage the technology, without compromising your professional responsibilities or client confidentiality, and enhancing your representation for CJA clients.

🕑: 09:45 AM - 10:00 AM
Break
🕑: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
How to Enjoy Oral Argument: Katie Hurrelbrink

Info: Oral argument can be a drag. On the one hand, no one relishes spending hours preparing for a 10-minute chat that—per the conventional wisdom—will not change the outcome of your case. On the other hand, no one wants to look silly or unprepared in front of three judges and a potentially infinite YouTube audience. But with the right preparation, materials, and mindset, oral argument can be tolerable and even…fun? This short training will provide some tips for beginners and suggestions for more seasoned advocates, with the goal of making oral argument a little less painful.

🕑: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ethics of Witness Preparation: Alison Guernsey

Info:  The line between witness preparation and impermissible witness coaching turns on whether the lawyer is helping the witness tell the truth more clearly or shaping the substance of that truth. Ethical rules and professional norms prohibit coaching because it risks distorting the fact-finding process, whereas legitimate preparation is not only permitted but essential to ensuring that testimony is clear, complete, and reliable. This presentation will explore the line between proper witness preparation and impermissible coaching. Attendees will learn what lawyers may do to help witnesses testify effectively while avoiding conduct that alters or influences the testimony’s substance. The session will note common pitfalls, including suggestive questioning, scripting, and the risk of shaping testimony to fit a narrative.

🕑: 12:00 PM - 01:30 PM
Lunch On Your Own **Afternoon CLE Sign-In Required**
🕑: 01:30 PM - 02:30 PM
Why Mitigation Matters a Decade of Covering the Death Penalty: Maurice Chammah

Info: Journalist Maurice Chammah will speak on what he's learned about the value of storytelling and the pros and cons of media exposure in capital cases, with a specific focus on the work of mitigation specialists, their history, and how they shape defense narratives

🕑: 02:30 PM - 02:45 PM
Break
🕑: 02:45 PM - 03:45 PM
The Transformative Power of Mitigation: Juliet Yackel

Info: Mitigation is the most powerful tool available for transforming how stakeholders view our clients. Effective mitigation uncovers the beauty, struggles, disabilities, trauma, strengths, and human experiences that shape the person behind the offense, replacing stereotypes and assumptions with understanding and context.
This session will introduce participants to strategies for presenting that evidence effectively to prosecutors, judges, and jurors, and insights into how mitigation can shape outcomes at every stage of a capital case. Through real-world examples, participants will leave with actionable approaches they can immediately apply in their own cases.
Whether you are new to capital defense or an experienced practitioner, this presentation will demonstrate why mitigation remains the most effective pathway to securing life and ensuring that every client’s story is fully heard.

🕑: 03:45 PM - 04:45 PM
Roundtable Panel on Mitigation : Maurice Chammah & Juliet Yackel

Info: Our two speakers will be joined by a local mitigation specialist for a roundtable discussion of mitigation with focus on answering questions from the audience.

🕑: 05:00 PM - 07:00 PM
Cocktail Party Sponsored by IACDL at JUMP (The Deck)