Following the New York Times editorial on the latest fashion trend in sentencing, Lawprof Doug Berman got an email from his beer buddy, Nebraska District Court Judge Richard Kopf. The good judge not only offers some thoughts on the state of affairs of sentencing, but wants you to know his thoughts as well.

Although it has the data and although it releases data on a court-by-court basis, the United States Sentencing Commission has never publicly released information on the ...

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Much has been written about how people are absurdly careless with their personal information online, offering everything from their home being readily available for theft to their least savory moments with unknown suitors in dimly lit pubs.  Little by little, people are beginning to realize that a moments foolishness can be their perpetual online legacy, and they restrain that urge to update their facebook with the running description of their bathing rituals.

That's all well and good, but does that mean you're now safe from ... << MORE >>

Via Bobby Frederick and Radley "Do I really look like my dog?" Balko.some fun video viewing. Three parts. Two intermissions. Fun stuff.

Caveat: It's been edited and put together. It's possible that material information is omitted. It's also possible that it portrays exactly what it claims to portray. Since this is offered for your viewing pleasure, and as another fine excuse to munch on something while you're awaiting your bar exam results or for the phone to ring, just chill out and be thankful that no ...

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Hemlines go up. Hemlines go down. Wide ties. Skinny ties. Individualized sentencing. Sentencing uniformity. We really need a Mr. Blackwell for criminal law.

The Department of Justice has issued its annual letter on the sentencing guidelines. You remember them, the matrix that determined sentence before the Supremes in Booker said "never mind."  So what does the DOJ have to say this year?

On the other hand, there is a second regime that has largely lost its moorings to the sentencing guidelines. This significant set of criminal cases includes those sentenced ...

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Sam Adams. A beer (and a darn good one at that). A founding father. Almost President. A lawyer with the balls to do his job. Pick 'em.

Sam Adam(s) Jr., is defending Rod Blagojevich in Chicago, where the judge, James B. Zagel, is trying to micromanage his summation. From the AP:

Judge James B. Zagel sent the jury home for the day after Blagojevich's attorney Sam Adam Jr. complained the judge was gutting his closing arguments by not allowing the defense to mention witnesses that prosecutors did not call. ...

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There are some very witty folks on twitter. No, it's not quite Oscar Wilde meets high tech, but then you don't have to be that witty to make friends. Plus, not everything Oscar Wilde had to say fit within the 140 character confines of twitter. Yet, there are new friends to be made who, out of the blue, get a decent chuckle.

Many, however, aren't on twitter to do an Oscar Wilde imitation. Oh, no sireebob. They are trolling for friends with an ulterior motive. They follow (then unfollow when you don't return ... << MORE >>

I received a suicide note today. Many emails come in from readers who are angry, outraged, at their treatment by the system and express their rage at one or more participants. This was completely different, and important enough that I take a few minutes from real work to write about it.

The writer doesn't ask me for anything, other than the hope that I might eventually find time to tell his story. He writes that it's difficult, but that he's already dead.

He was charged with internet solicitation, for going ... << MORE >>

I remember the first time a man came into my office and told me his brother was arrested for "crack". The word meant nothing to me. I did a lot of work with clients arrested for drugs, and though I knew a bit about the drugs on the street, but this was new to me. 

He explained that it was cocaine cooked with baking soda, boiled down so that it was concentrated. It was sold in tiny vials, and ingested by smoking rather than snorting. Why?  It was a cheaper, quicker way to ... << MORE >>

Whether you chalk it up to a rite of passage or a demonstration of the minimal degree of knowledge for the right to be responsible for other people's lives, the bar exam must still be passed before you get to call yourself a lawyer. I believe it will be administered on July 27-28th in New York. Suddenly, all those smart-mouthed know-it-all kids who were busy telling lawyers all about their vision of the law are lying in their beds in the fetal position, praying that they don't screw it up and reveal to the world, and their mothers, ... << MORE >>

I was sold on the idea after reading Dan Solove's book, The Future of Reputation. For reasons unknown, the New York Times has finally caught up with its story in the Sunday Magazine by lawprof Jeffrey Rosen. The problems are well known.

1. People post the most mind-numblingly stupid revealing and personal stuff about themselves.
2. People post things that seem funny at the time but will cause them enormous grief and problems later.
3. People post ... << MORE >>

Chandler criminal defense lawyer Matt Brown makes an astute observation. Listening to a loud-talking probation officer in her 20s interview a defendant, it became clear:

After the probation officer finished, she shuffled past me with a faint smile on her face. I caught a glimpse of the defendant in the visitation room. He was grizzled, with a glass eye and scars everywhere. He was rail thin and had a head of curly black hair. I looked back at the probation officer. She waited impatiently to get buzzed out of the ...

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Bill Otis at Crime and Consequences, who's never met a defendant who wouldn't taste better fried, posts the results of a Gallup poll about our confidence in American institutions.

Painful as this is to write, Otis' downside assessment of this poll, as it relates to the criminal ...

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It's not that the concept is new or novel. Hatred of lawyers and the system blamed on them, has been around for a long time, and growing. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, the economic downturn has made hiring a lawyer an impossibility for many, even if they were otherwise inclined to "lawyer up."

A growing number of people have found themselves in court facing costly financial proceedings such as declaring bankruptcy, fighting foreclosure and litigating employment fights. Adding to the challenge, for many: The ...

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On one level, it's kinda funny. On another, it's not funny at all. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, courtesy of Eugene Volokh, comes this story at the crossroad of politics and free speech.

[T]he Wisconsin Government Accountability Board rejected an independent Wisconsin Assembly candidate’s request to label herself on the ballot as “NOT the ‘whiteman’s bitch’”:

Unlike candidates from the established Democratic and Republican parties, independents are allowed a five-word statement of purpose on the ballot to explain to voters what their candidacy ...

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It's terrible that police officer deaths in the line of duty are up 43% this year over last. Not because the death of police officers, regardless of how "line of duty" is defined, are more significant than the death of any other person, but because the untimely death of a person who happens to be a police officer is as significant and unfortunate.

That doesn't make it my fault, however. Via FoxNews:

Eugene O'Donnell, professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in ...

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Caught in a bizarre Catch-22, Dan Wheeler may spend the rest of his life suffering the consequences. Via Radley Balko, KING5  reports:

It has been a nightmare for Dan Wheeler for 15 years. It started with his wallet being stolen from his truck, and his identity stolen. Usually the trouble that follows has to do with bank or credit fraud, but Wheeler says his identity was stolen by a sex offender who was arrested and used Wheeler's name as an alias.

"It's been absolutely miserable," said Wheeler.

...

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Via Bruce Carton at Legal Blog Watch, a fascinating question arose at the Consumerist  about whether a retailer has the authority to stop a patron who has purchased and paid for goods on the way out of the store and demand that the shopper provide his receipt for inspection.

The question arose from a poster who was stopped at Ikea.

I was shopping at the [redacted] IKEA today and after going through the self check out a man not in any uniform ...

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The stream is nearly never-ending, with at least a story a day to remind those of us who desperately want to believe that we have not dedicated our professional careers to a world run by the ignorant and the insane. Every once in a while, however, stories arise that are just too absurd to ignore. Today is such a day.

Reason 194, Only Criminals Will Buy Pontiacs

Via the Inquisitor, a fellow was stopped in his factory standard Pontiac G8 and ticketed for having illegal ...

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There's nothing really new about social media, but for newcomers, it's a wonderful world of miraculous opportunity and adventure. New friends to be made, if not to get business then at least to provide comfort and support where it doesn't exist amongst people who know you in real life. It's like being a child in a candy store, and everything is free.

For those who are old to social media, a concept that has a very different meaning than old in any other endeavor since three or four years under the belt in SM years ... << MORE >>

Fortunately, the cruiser was unharmed.

Inquiring minds want to know, what type of tissue is issued to New York City police officers? 

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Via Grits for Breakfast, at the hand of Rick Casey at the Houston Chron :

During the closed-door session in which the 13-member commission debated what sanction it should give Sharon Keller, presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, one non-lawyer member of the commission opined that Keller should be commended for saving the state money by blocking the appeal. 

I mean, seriously, isn't it bad enough we have to try 'em before we fry 'em?

        

A few days ago, the notion was raised that courthouses, the place where citizen jurors come to decide the fates citizen defendants, create an atmosphere that places officers in charge and on a pedestal. We pass through magnetometers operated by marshals or court officers. We watch as police officers roam freely, shown deference by everyone in the house because they are, after all, the embodiment of the government.

Eric Johnson at PrawfsBlawg takes it further.

In many places around the country, the United States Attorney's office is in the same building ...

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At a time when so many Gen Y are hiding from unemployment beneath their law school desks, it raises the question: What's wrong with working for a living?  From the Pittsburgh Review-Tribune:

One 29-year-old fellow in Washington, D.C. — he has a degree from Notre Dame — considered going to law school, like many others in the lawyer-saturated town.

After watching his friends work long hours as paralegals — and watching his lawyer pals sign their lives over to their firms — he did something sensible. ...

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It was about 25 years ago when I first met William. Our relationship began by my questioning him, asking if he was going to be good enough for me. I know, but I was much older then. Williams response was to tell me that I was free to go elsewhere. I stayed.

William was the proprietor of the Chinese Shirt Laundry. Not dry cleaners. Shirt laundry, where they only washed shirts. You have two sets of choices. Starch or no starch. Folded or hanger. My choice was heavy starch and hanger. A shirt ... << MORE >>

To outsiders, the issue may appear trivial, even silly, but to Dead Sea Scrolls scholars, it is all-consuming. And rather than chuckle at the vehemence with which these academics thrusted and parried, and took their stabs where they could find them, the New York County District Attorney has chosen instead to pick sides in this arcane debate by prosecuting Raphael Golb.

What makes this significant to the rest of us is that his crime is sending out emails and writing blog posts under false names, sockpuppets, to bolster one side and attack the others. ...

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It's not much of a stretch to argue that the more information government possesses about people, the easier it is to identify the perpetrators of crime. Heck, the more power government has to do much of anything, the easier it is for government to do whatever it wants to do. And so the argument went with the New York Stop & Frisk database.

The problem was that anybody who was stopped became a member of this less-than-exclusive club. No crime needed. Innocent or not. Stopped because some cop thought you looked at him ... << MORE >>

War has broken out between some Texas criminal defense lawyers and Sparta. Not the Greek City/State, but an SEO marketer who goes by unpretentious name Internet Guru Girl, no doubt because SEO Spammer Girl wouldn't have a distinctive brand. The initial skirmish began with Austin criminal defense lawyer Jamie Spencer, whose comments were bombarded by Sparta Townson on behalf of lawyers who wanted to make a dent on Google via Jamie's blawgs popularity.

Jamie, who is a ...

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Some see this video as controversial.  As a survivor of Auschwitz, he can celebrate his survival any damn way he pleases.



I hope this will be seen by every person alive today.  Too many aren't.  Let him dance.

        

From Boing Boing, this is offered as "the most accurate analogy" on the subject of comments "ever":

Weingarten, preach it: "I basically like 'comments,' though they can seem a little jarring: spit-flecked rants that are appended to a product that at least tries for a measure of objectivity and dignity. It's as though when you order a sirloin steak, it comes with a side of maggots."

That is one god-awful ugly image, but is it really that accurate?  While I'm certainly not in league with the big boys on the ... << MORE >>

New York City juries may be the place of intellectuals, sophisticates and metrosexuals, but that doesn't mean they don't like their cops. Or at least, accept the premise that working the thin blue line is simply too hard and challenging to expect much by way of discretion and restraint.

Walter Harvin was an Iraqi war vet on his way to see his mother in the Hostas Houses on West 93rd Street when Police Officer David London decided to play doorman. It's nothing unusual for a person who seeks entry into a project without ... << MORE >>

The title of Eugene's post, “We Affirm, But Only Because We Are Unable to Write a Principled Opinion Reversing,” sucked me in. You've got to admit, it's a great line. The post is about a Wisconsin decision concerning whether the a defendant must be informed that his plea will result in the loss of his Second Amendment right to keep and bear ... << MORE >>

A bit overwrought, since it's not as if Sharon "Killer" Keller actually did the killing. She just didn't do enough to give the defendant a chance to stop the killing, as would be demanded of the Chief Judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. That's right, the report of the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct is in, and Killer Keller's conduct brings discredit on the judiciary or the administration of justice.

Via Jeff Gamso, the decision:

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All the good people think the Sex Offender Registry is fabulous. The good people are defined as those who aren't on the sex offender registry. We know that they think it's fabulous because legislators across the country keep expanding it to include people who are neither sex offenders nor threats to anyone anywhere ever. Why?  Because every expansion brings them more adoring good people. That means votes, campaign contributions and smiles.

But just like laws named after children, it becomes increasingly difficult to find virgin territory for politicians to exploit in their ... << MORE >>

My bad. When I first read the story, I never went beyond the first paragraph. It was the ABA Journal, and the headline at the time was that Lindsay Lohan wanted a pro bono lawyer. It was too funny for me, and apparently too funny for the ABA Journal as well, as the headline is gone. It was more about a funny story than something to be taken seriously, so I never read the rest of the story.

Fortunately, Eric Turkewitz did, leading him to find at the end some curious statements ... << MORE >>

Houston criminal defense lawyer Jackie Carpenter learned the hard way and tells her story. It's rough and poignant at the same time. She handled herself admirably, in the face of a reality that never manages to find its way into the sanitized story that is told in a courtroom.

Read what happened to Jackie  when she was seized by mistake. And judges, read it twice. Don't waste this opportunity. ... << MORE >>

When Elizabeth Wurtzel argued that the bar exam should be abolished, I took it as the typical post-exam angst coupled with just a bit of sour grapes over her first-attempt failure to pass. Then Ilya Somin took up the call at Volokh Conspiracy, and the issue turned into a real debate. Richard Epstein jumped in to support the bar exam.John Yoo against it.

Up to this point, the various voices offered legitimate complaints about the bar exam, ... << MORE >>

It seemed as if things couldn't get any worse for Police Officer Patrick Pogan, when his arrest of Christopher Long, a cyclist in the Critical Mass rally, for attacking him was covertly videotaped. Only 10 days on the job and he was shown to be a violent attacker and liar. He had a great future ahead of him on the NYPD. Except for that video.

Finally prosecuted. Finally convicted, though not of the vicious assault on Long, because cops have to be allowed some latitude in viciously harming people, ... << MORE >>

No, not that rush. The rush of being a drug-arrest stud, For only $29.95, Andrew Hawkes can make you the envy of your department, hauling in the "Mother Load!"

o why do some cops bring in huge ...

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As jobs for lawyers disappear in the mist, applications for law school have risen 7%, according to the National Law Journal. One explanation is that law school applicants are going underground.

"It's absolutely consistent with every recession we've seen, with more people looking to graduate programs and into law school," said Jim Leipold, the executive director of NALP, formerly the National Association for Law Placement. "Historically, it's not been a bad strategy. I do think, for the immediate future, there are going to be ...

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Nancy O'Malley, district attorney of Alameda County who prosecuted former BART cop Johanes Mehserle for the death of Oscar Grant, told reporters that the jury didn't buy the weapons confusion defense.

She noted that the jury rejected Mehserle's claim that he'd been reaching for his Taser, not his gun. Instead, the jury found Mehserle discharged his gun in a negligent and criminally reckless manner.

No explanation was offered as to what she meant. Was she claiming he pulled the trigger accidentally?  Did he mean to ...

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Via Turley, a Toronto police officer demonstrates how a deprived childhood impairs one's adult sensibilities when it comes to threat perception.



Is that a camo scarf she's wearing? Just asking.
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Jeanne Mundango Manunga was a woman scorned. That should have been the first clue, but apparently no one bothered to give it much thought. Instead, the police focused on her complaint.

Deputy District Attorney Mena Guirguis said that after Manunga and her former boyfriend stopped dating in 2008, she took out a pre-paid cell phone in his sister-in-law's name, and started sending the threatening text messages to her regular cell phone.

Manunga then went to three different police departments ...

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A while back, I begged blawgers to stand for something. As blawging devolved into the amorphous "social media," words were murdered with no greater purpose than to fill blank space. Posts were pointless, lazy, meaningless, thoughtless. Most of all, they were safe. Bloggers who wrote to jump aboard the social media bandwagon wrote, well, meaningless garbage.

Jason Falls, who isn't a lawyer but rather a social media type, posts that bloggers need to get out of their comfort ... << MORE >>

I get the distinct impression that Patterico doesn't care much for Radley Balko. I also get the distinct impression that he couldn't care less about me. Why?  Why is Balko worthy of hatred and vitriol, but me, I'm the dirt under his Patterico boots. I feel so, so, used.

Patterico is busy trying to beat up on Radley. In the process, he pulls a quote from me that Radley used in one of his posts.

Re-reading the opinion yesterday, I noticed another problem with Balko’s ...

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Imagine living in a place where little, maybe nothing, more than being there is deemed sufficient cause for police to "stop, question, frisk."  Some horribly repressive third world country?  Try the Brownsville section of Brooklyn.

From the New York Times:

When night falls, police officers blanket some eight odd blocks of Brownsville, Brooklyn. Squad cars with flashing lights cruise along the main avenues: Livonia to Powell to Sutter to Rockaway. And again.

On the inner streets, dozens of officers, many fresh out of the police academy, ...

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When the Supremes decided in Maryland v. Shatzer that 14 days was long enough for a defendant's invocation of right to counsel to shield him from the police, was this what they had in mind?  Via the Arizona Republic:

Last year, Apache County Attorney Michael Whiting hired Brian Hounshell as a criminal investigator despite the fact that Hounshell, the former county sheriff, had been convicted of felony theft in a public corruption case. Earlier this year, Hounshell visited the suspect in jail and, without notifying the ...

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Brian Tannebaum posts that Harper Lee's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, turns 50 today. The lead character, as every criminal defense lawyer knows, is Atticus Finch. He is what we aspire to be. If you need more information about the book, then you probably shouldn't be reading Simple Justice. It's not for you.

Many lawyers have tried to model themselves after Atticus Finch. You won't find a better role model. Even in his imperfections, he's perfect.

Some lawyers have ... << MORE >>

The past week in Atlanta brought great successes and no shortage of failures. It was a long week, filled with stress. The time to board the flight home brought enormous relief. It was over.

The barely comprehensible announcement was that we had to board the Delta flight quickly or we would miss the "curfew" at LaGuardia airport and be forced to land elsewhere. This was a scheduled flight, making the announcement inexplicable. Did Delta schedule a flight to an airport that wouldn't let its plane land?  Whatever, we ... << MORE >>

Though it's not my way to write about my cases, Houston criminal defense lawyer Mark Bennett has chosen a different path, following his trial on charges of evidence tampering. After twelve days of trial and deliberations, the jury verdict came in: Guilty. He ponders why.

When I asked the jury afterward about the specific intent element, they talked about my client having a higher duty, and drew an analogy to a doctor leaving a sponge in a patient (negligence per se, though they didn't use those words). That's comparing apples and ...

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Jonathan Turley reports that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is outraged at the hospital tasing of his epileptic nephew,

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is reportedly outraged and maybe heading down to New Orleans after his nephew, Derek Thomas, was punched and tasered at a Louisiana hospital after refusing to put on a gown.

Derek Thomas may have been admitted after a possible suicide attempt and suffered a “massive seizure.” When he refused to put on the gown and attempted to leave, he was reportedly punched by a ...

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