The public defender is our guest editor but this is no baptism in journalism for him. He was a reporter with this very newspaper. In fact, the public defender was an award-winning journalist before turning his attention to the Bar.

And if by the remotest possibility someone afflicted with the Rip Van Winkle syndrome decides to rise from his slumber on this side of the planet and enquire: "Who is the public defender?" He is W. Earl Witter, QC, JP.

Witter was born in April 1944. He was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn, London, England, in July 1972, and has practised continuously at the Jamaican Bar since 1973, specialising in criminal, constitutional and industrial relations law and practice.

Admitted to other bars

He has also been admitted to practise at the Bar of Grenada and Petit Martinique, St Christopher and Nevis, and Bermuda. He has been retained as consultant in constitutional and criminal law matters in The Bahamas and The Cayman Islands, since 1989.

He is to date the only member of the utter Bar (body of junior barristers) to have been appointed ombudsman or public defender, which he was on September 13, 2006. He was appointed Queen's Counsel and a justice of the peace in 2007.

Prior to all of that, Witter was a reporter with The Gleaner and in 1967 he was awarded the second Seprod Journalism Award for the Outstanding News Story of the Year (1966).

He is a graduate of Excelsior School and was appointed senior prefect in 1963. He is also a former regimental sergeant major of the Jamaica Combined Cadet Force and Best Cadet at Banff, Alberta, Canada, in 1963.

He is married and has three adult sons. His hobbies are reading, cricket and dominoes.

The 'in laws' are here

( L - R ) Earl Witter, Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, Bert Samuels

Jacqueline Samuels-Brown and Bert Samuels are brother and sister by birth. They are also joined ... 'in law', she, the president of the Jamaican Bar Association, and he, a former member of the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council. W. Earl Witter is also ... 'in law', he, the public defender. But into the newsroom they walk, and law will be put aside for a while. Or will it? These lawyers are our latest guest editors and they will produce The Gleaner of Monday, December 7. You will not want to miss it.