Cheshire II: A Programming Note

Joshua Komisarjevsky will go down swinging. There’s little doubt he will be convicted of a dozen or so major felonies, including capital felonies, for his role in the 2007 Cheshire home invasion. And there is little doubt he will be sentenced to death. His trial is the second bite of a by now rotten and therefore noxious apple. We’ve seen it all, heard it all, and felt all there is to feel as we beheld the spectacle of the trial of Steven Hayes, his co-defendant, last year. There’s no sport, no drama, in this second act, this grim killing farce.
So...
February 17, 2011

Big Law, "Litigators," And The Vanishing Trial

The Wall Street Journal’s Law Blog carried a piece last week about the vanishing trial. I don’t know what the author is talking about. I try ten to twelve jury trials a year, year in and year out. And I do it in a state in which the manner of picking juries is time-consuming and wasteful, with each juror questioned outside the presence of all others, a process known as individual sequestered voir dire. Indeed, I begin jury selection in a child molestation case this morning. We expect jury selection to take five days, and the evidence itself to take two days.
But talk about...
February 14, 2011

A Simple Reform Of Adam Walsh Act -- Rebuttable Presumptions

There is a hearing this week before the United States House of Representatives Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security. On the agenda, reauthorization of the Adam Walsh Act. The witness list includes spokespersons from the Department of Justice, the United States Marshals, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and a state representative from Kansas. Absent from the witness list is any voice representing those designated a sex offender under our law, and thereby consigned to an increasingly onerous, punitive and dangerous second-class citizenship. I would have...
February 13, 2011

John Brown and the Grapes of Wrath

I love John Brown. I have for a long, long time. Indeed, one of the best books I have read in the past decade is about the abolitionist. Russell Banks’s fictional biography, Cloudsplitter, is what fire would be like if it could be compressed into two dimensions. My mind burned as I read that book.
Brian McGinty’s recent book, John Brown’s Trial, gave me another reason to love the man. It is a reconstruction of Brown’s trial for the raid on Harpers Ferry, Virginia, in 1859. (Note to the trivia collectors out there: The correct contemporary spelling of the town...
February 13, 2011

Christopher Lee's Real Cause For Shame

February 10, 2011
Shame on Christopher Lee. The New York Congressmen took his libidinal dog out for a walk, got caught, and promptly resigned from the House of...

Tap Dancing At The Gates Of Hell

February 10, 2011
Hell froze over one day last year and two men skated to freedom, set free by a judge of the Superior Court, who found that they were convicted in...

Empty Robe Syndrome

February 9, 2011
It is not at all clear why President Barack Obama has abandoned the federal courts, but he has. One of nine judgeships is vacant. There are 17...

Empty Robe Syndrome

February 9, 2011
It is not at all clear why President Barack Obama has abandoned the federal courts, but he has. One of nine judgeships is vacant. There are 17...

Why Ban Komisarjevsky To The Cheap Seats?

February 8, 2011
Among the many things a lawyer learns is where to sit in a courtroom. In Connecticut, there is an unwritten custom that parties with the burden of...

Time To Revisit Ex Post Facto Clause For Sex Offenders

February 7, 2011
Scores of folks have sent me emails generated by a group called Citizens for Change, America. They want me to hear their cries for justice, and to...

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Taking Back the Courts
Norm Pattis Taking Back the Courts

The Wizard of Oz was one of my favorites movies as a kid. Little did I know judges were so much like the wizard, hiding behind empty trappings of power. This book tells you things you need to know about what really goes on in court. Read it, weep, and then demand that the courts do better.

In the Trenches
Norm Pattis In the Trenches

Plenty of lawyers write about the law, but few who write try cases. Judge for yourself whether I talk the talk and walk the walk in this collection of occasional essays about life in the law's trenches.

Juries and Justice
Norm Pattis Juries and Justice

How prepared are you to take seriously the notion that 'we the people' are, in fact, sovereign? Discover the secret, and unused, power of jurors. 'Ask why; then nullify.'

Norm Pattis

About Norm

Norm Pattis is a Connecticut based trial lawyer focused on high stakes criminal cases and civil right violations. He is a veteran of more than 150 jury trials, many resulting in acquittals for people charged with serious crimes, multi-million dollar civil rights and discrimination verdicts, and scores of cases favorably settled.

© Norm Pattis is represented by Elite Lawyer Management, managing agents for Exceptional American Lawyers
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