When fire broke out in the police evidence warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn, my initial reaction was that a lot of defendants were going to walk when the prosecution was unable to introduce evidence at trial. But the Legal Aid Society has raised a very different question about lost evidence.

A week after a three-alarm fire destroyed a Red Hook New York City Police Department warehouse that contained decades’ worth of evidence, the Legal Aid Society said the blaze will have “far-reaching consequences” for ongoing court cases and called for the city to conduct a thorough investigation of what was lost in the fire and contact defendants whose cases have been impacted. Continue reading →

It’s painful to read the hyperbolic rhetoric of Ian Milhiser at Vox, if only because it’s like watching an aneurysm happen in real time, but beneath the hysteria, an actual legitimate point be found on occasion. This was such an occasion, under the obviously persuasive headline, America’s Trumpiest court doesn’t care if your right to a fair trial was violated.

Last Thursday, however, a far-right panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit effectively eliminated state prisoners’ right to seek what is known as a “writ of habeas corpus” when they are imprisoned in violation of the Constitution or federal law, except in cases of “factual innocence.” Continue reading →

Piling onto the California rape conviction of Harvey Weinstein, losing Manhattan DA candidate Tali Farhadian Weinstein and Jane Manning, former prosecutor and Women’s Equal Justice Project argue in the New York Times that propensity evidence should be admissible in court, but only for sex crimes.

Disagreements over how much a jury should know about a defendant aren’t new. The American legal system has long checked prosecutors’ wish to share negative history about the accused. Prosecutors pursue crimes, not people, and we are supposed to hold people accountable for their bad acts, not their bad reputation. Continue reading →

It’s hard to blame El Paso Democratic mayor Oscar Leeser, who has done his best to be compassionate to those crossing the border without prior authorization. But he knows he’s got a problem.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser issued an emergency declaration Saturday night to address the increase in migrants crossing the southern border, citing the dangerous winter conditions and shelters lacking the capacity to meet the demand next week. Continue reading →

Is it wrong for a city government to make the deliberate choice of trying to be more sensitive to and accommodating of street crime? While there may be good reason to be more understanding and less harsh than governments have historically been when they viewed crime as a social and moral failing rather than the last recourse of victims and the end result of oppression, it presents something of a problem for local businesses, particularly in the Tenderloin of Frisco.

Another merchant revolt is in the works four months after small business owners in the Castro penned a letter to various city officials demanding, among other things, that 35 beds in the city’s shelter system be designated for unhoused people in the LGBTQ neighborhood. This time, business owners in the beleaguered Tenderloin are demanding a refund of last year’s taxes and fees to help them cover the costs of trying to sustain businesses amid the crime and drug dealing on the neighborhood’s streets. Continue reading →

When the Anti-Drug Abuse Act was passed in 1986, it was in the throes of the crack epidemic. Crack was some super-evil drug, invariably addictive, giving its users superhuman strength and such an extreme need for more crack that they would engage in all manner of violent and horrific acts to get the money for their next fix. At the same time, powdered coke was the darling of the hip set, snorted openly at cool places like Studio 54 by hip folks with names everyone knew. Continue reading →

When one looks back at the year 2022, it’ll be safe to say this year was remembered as one where we put aside our collective differences, came together for the betterment of humanity, and took a collective leap forward as a species.

SURPRISE! None of that actually happened. Instead, we got more finger pointing, blaming of elected and unelected idiots for our woes, wars, and general unrest not just in America but across the globe.

At least we didn’t get a pandemic this year. No, we moved onto the Current Thing after COVID in 2022, which is at least a bit of progress. More on that later. Continue reading →

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Rarely is that more true than here.

This was the “major announcement” of a putative candidate for president, that he was selling NFTs of his thin and manly fantasy self. Was this his way of demonstrating his self-loathing or just another grift to see how stupid his followers were, whether they would spend good money to buy the Trump version of the Barbie Dream House? Continue reading →

When I was young, teaching, like nursing, was still largely a women’s job. It was one of the jobs where women were predominate, and so smart, capable women went into it for lack of alternatives where they would be accepted. But since women were rarely the primary breadwinners, and their incomes were secondary to the family, their pay was decent, but not great. After all, these were women, so whatever money they brought home was atop their husband’s. It was gravy, if you will. Continue reading →

For years, people have asked how they can get out of jury duty. My response has always been the same, that we need good jurors or the system doesn’t work. People tend to agree, but they still want to get out of jury duty. Let some other guy be the good person.

But now a Legal Aid Society lawyer with a felony conviction has decided he not only wants to be on a jury, but that his exclusion from jury service for having a prior felony conviction is racist and unconstitutional. Continue reading →