Who doesn’t love forensic science, making every case easy-peasy because, well, science says so. No burden of having to think hard (and get the accompanying headache), understand what’s being alleged and critically parsing it for efficacy and accuracy. No way, baby. When an agent takes the stand and says the defendant is GUILTY, GUILTY, GUILTY, because science says so, everybody can pat themselves on the back for a job well done and walk away without the slightest hint of doubt.

Science. Cool, right?

Except when Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

Mandi Wright, a photographer for the Detroit Free Press, learned a bit of a lesson about what it’s like to be on the wrong end of a cop, as she recorded a person being arrested and placed into a police cruiser.

This requires a bit of a breakdown, Continue reading →

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  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 →

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 →

Hearing that the mob was going to storm the jail and lynch Tom Robinson, the fictional Atticus Finch stood at the doorway to block their entrance. Among criminal defense lawyers, Atticus Finch is revered as a paragon of honor. Not all lawyers saw it that way. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →