A JD By Watching TV

The New York Times Room for Debate poses yet another interesting issue raised by the dubious fascination with the Zimmerman trial:

Does televising important trials let people better understand the case, and the criminal justice system, or does that attention turn the justice system into a circus?

Think the answer is obvious? Not to the chosen experts.  Larry Posner, identified merely as a trial lawyer, offers his two cents:

Watch a televised trial not because it is an excellent tutorial on our justice system, but because it is a tolerable – and even entertaining – method of learning Continue reading →

To Talk Inside Baseball, You Have To Be Inside Baseball

Before Jim Bouton wrote Ball Four, he was a major league pitcher. He wrote about “inside baseball” because he had been inside baseball. He had the goods.

MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell tried to do the same thing with criminal defense lawyers. But he was never a major league pitcher.  He’s been ripped to shreds already for some of the ignorance he’s spread, in excruciating detail, so no need to go over that turf again. Continue reading →

Moving Day (Update)

Well, it’s here. Welcome to the new and improved SJ.  A lot of people helped me along the way, and the first thing I need to do is thank them.  TJIC and FritzMuffKnuckle were with me at the beginning of this move, and steered me into this when I was at the point of throwing up my hands with GoDaddy and chucking it all.

Due to some unforeseen twists and turns in the middle, Continue reading →

The Butcher, The Baker and FISA

The  House Judiciary Committee will be holding a hearing today on FISA, the NSA and some guy named Snowden. Few people are aware of this, as their time and attention are consumed by more important legal concerns, as regularly voice by legal entertainer,  Nancy Grace.  But it will happen nonetheless.

Stewart Baker, who harbors some  peculiar notions when it comes to the things the government does to keep us safe, will be testifying, Continue reading →

Straight From The Hole

It’s far easier to wrap your head around torture when it involves the infliction of active pain. That doesn’t make passive pain, the infliction of often unbearable psychological punishment, any less torturous. And it happens regularly, and many times arbitrarily, as explained in an op-ed by Wilbert Rideau, who served 44 years for manslaughter in Louisiana. Continue reading →

Command Prompt

Radley Balko picks up yet another incredibly sad story borne of the inherent conflict between protect and serve out of Hillsborough County, Florida.  From the Tampa Bay Times :

Allen Daniel Hicks Sr., 51, was found stopped in his car on the side of Interstate 275 by a sheriff’s deputy and a Florida Highway Patrol trooper the morning of May 11, 2012. Passers-by had called 911 after they saw Hicks’ Chevy Cavalier swerving west into a guardrail, records of the incident show. Continue reading →

Sound The Retreat (Update)

Remember when the word “wilding” was introduced into the general lexicon so that we would have a word to capture the “super-predator” gangs of youths who were intent on destroying society?  It came out of the  Central Park Five case, and produced a huge shift in our approach to juvenile prosecution and punishment.

“Justice,” people cried. They demanded justice. Don’t let these super-predator kids destroy our world with wilding.  Continue reading →

Entropy: It’s Not What It Used To Be*

In thermodynamics, entropy is the measure of how things go from order to disorder. Its application is far broader, however, applying to life in general. For those of us, like me, who strive to maintain order, it is the enemy.

My ability to do what I do, to function, depends on my maintaining order. In a world of chaos, it’s a constant battle. No man is an island, and so almost every function relies to some greater or lesser extent on interactions with others. In order to prepare an affidavit, Continue reading →