I just lost a tough case and, as in any loss, I am bitter about it. My client faces 60 years for the shooting of a rival gang member in Hartford’s North End. We tried the case twice, the first time to a hung jury. On Monday, a jury returned a quick guilty verdict.
The case turned on the testimony of two witnesses, one a man who claimed to be the driver as my client mowed down the decedent with an assault rifle. This witness was facing charges in some 14 attempted and conspiracy to commit murder charges, a man who had already pleaded guilty to another murder and had been sentenced...
March 26, 2015
What if just about everything we think we know about the war on drugs is wrong?
Start, for example, with the oft-repeated proposition that the war began in the 1970s, during the administration of Richard M. Nixon.
Wrong. The war is far older, and originates in Henry Anslinger's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, created in 1930. Anslinger's preoccupation with marijuana set the nation on a tragic and costly course from which we still have not recovered. You can drink yourself into a coma, but don't dare touch weed or a pill, at least in most states.
Or how about the canard that...
March 25, 2015
Only rarely have I been able to use the Judas Iscariot sentencing argument. I did so today. My client was found guilty of murder, and faces a maximum of 60 years. There is little doubt he will get every bit of that, given the fact that he faces many other charges of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder.
So rather than bend a knee and request mercy, we took a "bring it on" posture.
After the jury left the room, the judge asked about a sentencing date.
"We're anxious to take an appeal, Judge," I said.
"Considering this verdict," I continued, "I am mindful...
March 23, 2015
I came home after dark last night to a report from my wife that our emu had died. She spotted him lifeless in the back of an outbuilding in which he seeks shelter. I could not bear the thought of dealing with him last night. It had been too long and too difficult a week.
I went out not long ago to bury him. A dismal sort of task I avoided all day long.
I was suspicious as I walked out to the building in which she saw him. From the barn to his outbuilding were what appeared to be fresh tracks in new fallen show. How could this be?
I walked up to the building, and was overcome...
March 23, 2015
March 22, 2015
Trial, some say, is a search for the truth. That’s specious tomfoolery. In fact, trial, at least a criminal trial, is guerilla warfare. Some of...
March 12, 2015
I’ve never understood why folks don’t regard public defenders as real lawyers. Some of the best lawyers in the state are public defenders...
March 8, 2015
Gov. Dannel Malloy is calling for reform of some of the state's draconian sentencing laws, proposing that mere drug possession be a misdemeanor, and...
March 4, 2015
I was sitting with a client, a federal prosecutor and a FBI agent the other night. We were engaged in what is known as a “reverse...
February 27, 2015
At courthouses throughout the state, the public at large is required to walk through a metal detector to gain entrance. This includes criminal...
February 26, 2015
Now that we've abolished the death penalty in Connecticut, at least insofar as future cases are concerned, the fate of those currently on death row...