Michelle Alexander writes in this morning’s New York Times about mass incarceration and plea bargaining. She wonders what would happen if defendants everywhere organized and refused to bargain. That would collapse the criminal justice system, wouldn’t it? Imagine prosecutors having to try all those cases! Might that not force a system that regards violations of the law as a board game designed and intended to sustain a prison-industrial complex rethink the madness of making almost any form of deviance from antiquated norms a crime?
Odds are Ms. Alexander, a law professor, a...
March 11, 2012
Lawyers who tell war stories are tedious bores. I mean, we all have stories to tell, right? What makes your story so special that I should stop what I am doing to listen to it? Yet we can’t help telling these tales. The truth of the matter is, a lawyer lives a privileged sort of life. We get front-row seats at the theater called chaos.
So let me relay a story, sanitized somewhat to protect the names of folks who might not like being memorialized in this manner.
I do not often take cases out of state. Although Connecticut is a small place, there is generally enough work to...
March 8, 2012
Any man married for more than a decade should have an intuitive grasp of the dignitary interests served by the right to remain silent when accused. I write today for those without the requisite matrimonial experience.
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees a person accused of a crime the right to remain silent. The government can neither compel an accused person to speak, nor use the accused’s decision not to respond to allegations against him. In other words, the accused is afforded the dignity of silence.
As a matter of law, this right can be...
March 7, 2012
Here's the latest in the ongoing saga of the Bridgeport school board crisis. Unless you have followed the story to date, this will not make a lot of sense. Sorry about that.
Rumor has it that Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch has been telling General Assembly members that I have concluded some sort of deal with the city and state Department of Education calling for the placement of Maria Pereira and Bobby Simmons on the city's board of education immediately. The rumors are simply untrue. There are no deals in place. Bobby and Maria remain locked out of the offices they were elected to...
March 6, 2012
March 2, 2012
I hope Tanya McDowell will forgive us, someday, for our hypocrisy and cruelty. I hope her son will as well. But first she will have to serve her...
March 1, 2012
I have long grown accustomed to the facts of life known to all criminal defense lawyers: little people get run over and crushed in court. When a...
February 29, 2012
This just in from a source watching Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's mad scramble to deprive Bridgeport voters of the right to vote for their own board of...
February 29, 2012
A call came in moments ago. Mayor Bill Finch and his aides are busy at work in Hartford, lobbying lawmakers to pass legislation retroactively...
February 29, 2012
The war of attrition has already set in on the Bridgeport school board case. Notwithstanding the 6-1 decision of the Connecticut Supreme Court...
February 29, 2012
The Supreme Court spoke yesterday, finally, and declared six-to-one that the soul of the Bridgeport public schools is not for sale. New elections...