People send me books to review all the time. To some extent, I try to read them. I say try, because most are blog posts spread over a few hundred pages, or personal stories of injustice that are largely the same as the last hundred personal stories of injustice. But over the past couple years, a new genre of book on criminal law reform has emerged. It’s got one singular feature: It’s mostly written in adjectives and adverbs rather than nouns. In other words, it’s filled with passion and devoid of substance.

Which is why I appreciate this book review of “Usual Cruelty,” written by Alec Karakatsanis and reviewed at Slate by Lucy Lang. The subtitle of her review strikes the perfect note.

A new book argues that the “rule of law” is unjust. As a former prosecutor, I agree.

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Are you good with some car blowing through a stop sign? There’s a reason for the sign. There’s a reason why it’s a stop sign, not a “have a nice day” sign. Most of us would strongly prefer that drivers stop, because we rely on general adherence to traffic control signs to remain alive. It’s not so much about being compliant as about the necessity for certain rules to avoid certain death.

So what the hell are they thinking in Oakland?

Oakland police, long criticized for using traffic violations to search and interrogate people of color, are trying something new: They’ve dramatically cut back on enforcement. Continue reading →

Here are a few unsolicited opinions, offered by a likely unqualified person on the internet, which no rational person should give a damn about unless they agree with said opinions.

If you walk up and down every aisle of a grocery store and don’t actually purchase an item from each aisle, you’re the Kroger equivalent of a mall walker and deserve to be treated as such.

Texting is ruining human communication. What reasonable person spends time typing words out with their thumbs when you can accomplish the same goal in less time with a phone call? It’s getting out of hand. We have birthday texts, holiday texts, group texts, and more. There’s even “sexting,” which becomes problematic when kids do it. Just stop now. Continue reading →

Long Island is a collection of ghettos, primarily grouped by race and relative wealth.* The latter can’t be helped, as million dollar homes cost a million dollars, but the former is inexcusable and, not insignificantly, unlawful.

In one of the most concentrated investigations of discrimination by real estate agents in the half century since enactment of America’s landmark fair housing law, Newsday found evidence of widespread separate and unequal treatment of minority potential homebuyers and minority communities on Long Island.

The three-year probe strongly indicates that house hunting in one of the nation’s most segregated suburbs poses substantial risks of discrimination, with black buyers chancing disadvantages almost half the time they enlist brokers.

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An editorial in the Columbus Dispatch raises a question that percolates through a great many convictions, particularly those taken up by the Innocence Projects. Why do prosecutors fight so hard to prevent a defendant convicted long before DNA testing was readily available from testing the DNA?

Brunner possibly could have been exonerated sooner, when the Innocence Project based at the University of Cincinnati’s law school identified him for The Dispatch as someone with a questionable conviction. But at that time, a judge in Stark County denied his request for testing.

It’s hard to see any reasonable justification for the denial. DNA technology continues to advance, meaning evidence that previously wasn’t testable may now be able to provide certainty about guilt or innocence.

The Innocence Project didn’t give up; it again requested testing for Brunner in 2018 and the judge this time, Kristin Farmer, granted permission.

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In the case argued before the First Circuit by Harvard prawf Jeannie Suk Gerson, after much inexplicable melodrama, the sole issue before the court was whether to reverse a temporary restraining order issued by Judge Douglas Woodlock. Ordinarily, this isn’t a tough call. This time, it wasn’t merely tough, but added another level of bizarre to the case.

A TRO maintains the status quo ante until the suit against Boston College is determined, much like letting a defendant remain on bail rather than serve his sentence while his appeal is proceeding. The reason is fairly obvious: if the defendant is constrained to serve his sentence immediately, but the conviction is subsequently reversed, he doesn’t get that time back. Not even the god-like power of a federal court can alter time. It’s gone, lost forever, together with the consequences that follow from the punishment to family, job, life. Continue reading →

As you know, my theory is that I write the posts and, should you find them sufficiently worthwhile to read (whether for love or hate), it’s up to you to contribute to the freight of keeping SJ online.

So if you want to help, there’s a way you can do so and make $50. I know, right? SoFi bank* will pay you $50 to open an online bank account, called SoFi Money, and fund it with $100. SoFi will then pay me $50 for referring you. It takes about five minutes, it’s intrusive because what bank isn’t, but for your $100 funding (and it actually pays a far better interest rate than brick and mortar banks), you get $50 and so does SJ. Continue reading →

Chris Seaton is your typical cis white male colonist, caring only about the Thanksgiving turkey, dammit, and not a lick about the 556 federally recognized tribes of indigenous people who suffered for his stuffing. When I read his screed, I was literally shaking.

Thus, it’s incumbent upon me to counter his polemic with a more empathetic post to reflect the critical issue of what makeup a true ally should wear in order to demonstrate their lack of complicity.

I, too, hope your turkey is dry, Susan.

The complaint stated that Officer Smith observed the defendant hand a vial to another person on the corner of South Street and 107th. The defendant has been “credibly accused.” So what? No rational person would argue that the defendant should now be presumed guilty, or that he might as well be detained as he’s obviously guilty. Why bother to try him? After all, he’s been credibly accused.

Of course, if Officer Smith wasn’t on duty that day, and was, in fact, on vacation in the Bahamas, sunning himself on the beach and drinking a fruity beverage with a tiny umbrella jutting out of the cup, then the accusation would be incredible. Or if the defendant was the one on the beach instead. It could happen.

If that was proven, the defendant would be incredibly accused. An incredible accusation would be dismissed out of hand, but a credible accusation might give rise to further inquiry.  What it would not do, never do, is suffice for any greater purpose. Continue reading →

Derrick Jenkins was not pleased that his suit against the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Department was dismissed, so he decided it was a good idea to let Circuit Judge Howard K. Coates Jr. know how he felt and sent him a kinda motion letter.

The letter ripped the judge as “incompetent” and “unfit to serve,” with expletives added for emphasis.

This barely does justice to Jenkins’ complaints, which expressed how he really felt. It’s worth a full read. Continue reading →