From a distance, the case no doubt looked hopeless. Jonathan Gibbs had confessed to police, signing a statement under oath, telling officers he was alone, that he had fired a pistol at a fleeing man.
The man was found dead between two houses at the very location Gibbs confessed to firing from, a single gunshot to the back of his head, killing him instantly. When Jon's DNA was found on the gun, it looked like an open-and-shut case of murder.
The stakes are high in such cases. After a conviction, a defendant, even one without a record, as Jon was, can expect the full monte -- 60...
August 9, 2014
Politico is not naming the member of the Washington, D.C., Police Department who announced that John Hinkley may face new charges because of the recent death of James Brady, so let me name him: Officer Stu Pid, as in idiot, fool, nitwit, numsbkull, asshat, moron -- need I go on?
Hinkley shot President Ronald Reagan and James Brady, then the president's press secretary, in 1981, in a quite literally insane effort to impress actress Jodi Foster. Hinkley's been cooling his heels in a psychiatric hospital in the District of Columbia ever since. He's unlikely ever to be free from confinement...
August 8, 2014
What would you call a self-confessed agnostic who recites Psalm 23 in times of grave trouble? Hypocrite comes to mind, and the description fits. Fool also fits. And sinner works, too, although just what the concept of sin can mean to the godless is a mystery.
But there I was on the cusp of cross-examination in a difficult case. The words summoned me like an invitation to place I no longer knew how to visit.
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
In high school when all was storm, stress and terror, I had...
August 3, 2014
One of the occupational hazards of the legal profession is a close acquaintance with chaos. The darkness leads some into the wasteland of depression, and they fall prey to alcoholism, to drug use or to despair. Others yield to a haughty sense that they are above it all, that they are mere spectators to the struggles of the ordinary mortals whose cases consume their professional lives. This later arrogance breeds a species of entitlement to which even judges are not immune.
I’ve never met former Detroit Circuit Court Judge Wade McCree, so I only know what I’ve read. The...
August 3, 2014
July 26, 2014
It seems as though all of my heroes are getting long in the tooth: Gerry Spence and F. Lee Bailey are in their 80s. Tony Serra is 79. Even John...
July 25, 2014
It surprises most people to learn that in the state courts of Connecticut, judges almost never permit opening statements in criminal cases. Lawyers...
July 20, 2014
Among the many defining errors I've made along life's way is my public and open scorn for law professors. Those who can't do, teach, and those who...
July 19, 2014
"I know that a certain percentage of folks I send to prison are, in fact, innocent," he said. "I just don't know how to identify who those folks...
July 9, 2014
Some contend that trials, especially criminal trials, are won or lost during jury selection. Although jury selection is intended merely to assure...
July 8, 2014
Richard Kopf, a U.S. District Court judge in Nebraska, writes a blog. The other day, he vented about the Supreme Court's recent decision in Hobby...