So what do you make of juror B37 in the Zimmerman case? She was released from jury duty late Saturday night. By Monday morning, she had a book deal in place, and interviews scheduled with Anderson Cooper. Even her fellow jurors are now distancing themselves from her. What are the odds she didn’t have fame and fortune in mind as the jury struggled to reach unanimity in its verdict?
And what of the testimony of the lead investigator for the Sanford Police Department, Christopher Serino? Did he really tell the jury he found Zimmerman credible, a truthful witness? Do you suppose he...
July 18, 2013
George Zimmerman was acquitted of both the crimes of murder and manslaughter in Florida last week. Today, plenty of folks are angry about that. They believe he got away with murder. There are calls for federal prosecution of Zimmerman.
What will Attorney General Eric Holder do?
Shortly after being sworn in as the nation’s top law enforcement officer, Holder had this to say about the status of race relations in the United States: “Though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial...
July 15, 2013
Six women -- five white, and one Hispanic -- acquitted George Zimmerman Saturday night for the killing of Trayvon Martin. The jurors rejected both a charge of murder, which, under Florida law, required showing of hatred or animus, and manslaughter, which required a lesser showing of a lack of justification for the shooting death. They set Zimmerman free late Saturday night in a verdict that stunned many who suspected that this crime reflected less the exigencies of self-defense than it did the raw edges of the new American frontier between white, or near-white, privilege, and the black...
July 13, 2013
Forgive me if I think of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court as little more than an obscene joke. But what else are we to think of a court that permits only the government to appear to plead its case? That works in secret? That has never had a decision of its reviewed in any meaningful way by the United States Supreme Court? That almost never says “no” to the government?
The court looks less like an adjudicative body dedicated to the protection of the rights of ordinary citizens, than it does a checkout counter for the intelligence community, with federal judges...
July 11, 2013
July 7, 2013
History, it is often observed, is written by the winners. Losers die, are marginalized, are forgotten. History, then, is often a partial truth. It...
July 6, 2013
Lawyers and judges mean well, at least most of the time. At least I think we do. But although courtrooms are theaters at which life-defining dramas...
July 5, 2013
Each year, the Supreme Court ends its term with the crash and bang of major new decisions. By tradition, the court seems to save its most...
June 27, 2013
“You are confusing me,” he said. “You’re telling me I should really consider the state’s offer, and that you are ready...
June 23, 2013
“[T]he great emancipatory gains for human freedom have not been the result of orderly, institutional procedures but of...
June 22, 2013
I’ve a serious case of cross-examination envy as I read about the trial of United States v. James “Whitey” Bulger, now pending...