When Wild Bill Douglas wrote the majority opinion in Brady v. Maryland,* he played a cruel trick on the defense. One little detail was omitted from the decision. Just a small thing. Barely worth mentioning, except for the fact that it was the key to any meaningful use of Brady material: When the duty to disclose arose.

That was 1963.

New York’s Chief Judge Janet DiFiore announced via a memo from the Chief Administrative Judge that she will issue a new rule requiring Brady disclosure by the prosecution 30 days before trial.

Judges would be required to issue the order at the first court date where both the prosecutor and defense counsel are present. Judges could choose to issue a model order included in the memo or write their own.

Disclosures are to be made at least 30 days before trial in a felony and 15 days before trial in a misdemeanor case. The model order requires prosecutors to look through files to find information favorable to the defense.

Continue reading →

There’s a guy. He’s an American citizen, but he’s held in Iraq. He’s alleged to be an “enemy combatant” fighting in Syria, but what evidence exists to support that claim is unknown. And he doesn’t have a lawyer, so the ACLU wants to step up.

For nearly two months, the U.S. military has been detaining an American citizen at a secret jail in Iraq, denying him access to a lawyer and even refusing to release his name. The Trump administration is calling the citizen an “enemy combatant,” claiming he was fighting for ISIS in Syria, but it has not presented any evidence to back up its allegations.

It’s entirely possible, if not likely, that the government’s claims are right, that this guy was fighting for Syria and, despite his citizenship, is an enemy combatant. But he’s still a United States citizen, which means he’s still entitled to his constitutional rights. I know, you don’t think he deserves them, but you don’t get a vote. Continue reading →

The name of its publication may be appealing to the more passionate and myopic, but makes me cringe a bit. It’s called In Justice Today. Who doesn’t like the word “justice”? It’s smug with righteousness, while allowing one side to claim it as if justice was that simple. Whatever, it’s an organization trying to capitalize on a popular word that appeals to supporters of the Fair Punishment Project.

The Fair Punishment Project is helping to create a fair and accountable justice system through legal action, public discourse, and educational initiatives.

These words are vague enough that the organization could easily be pro-defense, pro-prosecution or pro-sound policy. That’s the beauty of fluffy yet empty rhetoric. Anybody can claim it. But their publication makes their purpose clear: Continue reading →

A persistent retort to misconduct by prosecutors is that they suffer no consequences when they’re caught. For chief deputy prosecutor in LaPorte County, Indiana, Robert Neary, getting caught wasn’t the problem. He was honest enough to report himself to the bar for his misconduct.

Count 1. On Friday, March 14, 2014, Brian Taylor was being held in custody at the Michigan City Police Department in connection with a homicide investigation. Attorney David Payne arrived at the station mid-afternoon to meet with Taylor, and Respondent was summoned to the station by the police chief to assist with any issues that might arise. Respondent and detectives escorted Payne to the interview room to meet with Taylor, a detective instructed Payne to flip a toggle switch outside the room “unless you want us listening to your conversation,” and Payne did so. However, the switch merely controlled the recording system and did not disable the audio and video feeds, which were controlled in a separate area in the police station referred to as the “war room.”

As Payne and Taylor spoke, the cops and Neary sat in the war room and listened. They finally heard some good stuff. Continue reading →

Their passports will be revoked until new ones are issued that contain the statutorily required notice to the world, ironically called their “unique identifier”:

The bearer was convicted of a sex offense against a minor, and is a covered sex offender pursuant to (U.S. law).

To read the lede, a warm feeling of justice will wash over every well-intended person.

America’s registered child sex offenders will now have to use passports identifying them for their past crimes when traveling overseas.

Continue reading →

When news broke that Memphis victims of alleged domestic violence and sexual assault were wearing GPS monitors, cries of “that is not okay” rang out.

The Memphis Police Department is under fire for an alleged pattern of misconduct towards female victims of crime. The latest incident involves Sexual Assault Kit Taskforce revealing that dozens of sexual assault and domestic violence victims were outfitted with GPS ankle bracelets.

The October 2017 monthly report of the Sexual Assault Kit Taskforce acknowledge that 17 sex crimes victims and 52 domestic violence victims had been fitted with the devices, which are normally used only for those on probation, parole, or out on bail while awaiting trial.

This came on top of earlier furor that 12,000 rape kits remained untested in Memphis, which gave rise to the task force. One of the women whose kit went untested, and whose rapist allegedly attacked six more women after her, was Meaghan Ybos, who went on to form “People for the Enforcement of Rape Laws,” and discovered the use of GPS monitoring. Continue reading →

In a flash of passive-aggressive cogency, Jezebel spanks the “male feminist.”

Even as satire, its existence seemed to feed into the stereotype that men who position themselves as male feminists are overcompensating for their misogyny.

Buried in there is the acknowledgement that the neo-feminist obsession with misogyny permeates their allies. After all, they are male, and therefore must confess and repent their toxic masculinity, even though they can never cleanse themselves of their maleness.

Where does someone learn such things?

It’s a good job no one starts a postgraduate degree in gender studies to meet men: my MPhil class at Cambridge contains precisely zero of them. Apparently, this is anomalous, according to course director Dr Andy Tucker. In the three previous years there have been a quarter to a third men: a better turnout than on many gender programmes. Continue reading →

When Cristian Farias twitted about his excellent post, detailing Rochelle Garza’s representation of Jane Doe, he used the phrase “held the hand of a once-pregnant undocumented teen in Texas.” This reminded Blake Feldman of what Bronx Defenders founder Robin Steinberg told him when he was an intern.

I’ll never forget Robin Steinberg telling me & 50 other interns that we don’t have to be “hand holders” or “trial jocks.” We can be both https://t.co/eRC2KwFDts

— Blake Feldman (@bfeldman89) November 4, 2017

Robin takes a holistic view of the relationship between criminal defense lawyers and their clients, where hand-holding is just as much of the job as trying their case. Years ago, this wouldn’t require any further discussion, as it was understood that part of the job included the emotional management of a client. Today, it’s not so clear. Continue reading →

At PrawfsBlawg, Howard Wasserman points to the Atlantic’s post about the Reedies Against Racism protesting the required course, Humanities 110.

At Reed College, a small liberal-arts school in Portland, Oregon, a 39-year-old Saturday Night Live skit recently caused an uproar over cultural appropriation. In the classic Steve Martin skit, he performs a goofy song, “King Tut,” meant to satirize a Tutankhamun exhibit touring the U.S. and to criticize the commercialization of Egyptian culture. You could say that his critique is weak; that his humor is lame; that his dance moves are unintentionally offensive or downright racist. All of that, and more, was debated in a humanities course at Reed.

But many students found the video so egregious that they opposed its very presence in class. “That’s like somebody … making a song just littered with the n-word everywhere,” a member of Reedies Against Racism (RAR) told the student newspaper when asked about Martin’s performance. She told me more: The Egyptian garb of the backup dancers and singers—many of whom are African American—“is racist as well. The gold face of the saxophone dancer leaving its tomb is an exhibition of blackface.”

Continue reading →

When the tragedy is perpetrated by a bullet, the cries for gun control ring out. When the tragedy is caused by a truck, what can you say?

In the coming days, politicians will try to convince you that what happened on the West Side Highway in Manhattan this week was an issue of terrorism, immigration, or religion. But just like the plague of mass shootings is a gun problem, the thousands of people killed by cars as they walk our streets every year is a car problem.

The obsession with calling a tragedy “terrorism,” with its nouveau definition of being whatever the unduly passionate say it is, contributes nothing. All of the factors that were involved are in play, but whether a change to any one of them would have thwarted the tragedy, or will prevent any future tragedy, is obscured by the screaming politics that drown out the mourners’ dirge.

But rarely does anyone blame the vehicle, even though trucks and cars kill tons of people. Continue reading →