I’ve been practicing law just long enough to know that I will never make sense of it all. It’s not that I am stupid, although my shortcomings are certainly an issue. The larger truth is that the law is irrational. It bumps, grinds and gyrates in ways that simply make no sense.
This is especially true in criminal cases alleging sexual misconduct.
Suppose a man is accused of rape. He is, of course, presumed innocent, but the details of his arrest are made public. In the eyes of many, he is condemned by mere accusation. We know the shaming power of a public accusation....
July 27, 2013
One of the abiding convictions of criminal defense lawyers is that no one is the sum of their worst moments. The man or woman on whose side I stand may be accused of having committed a horrific act, and the act is all the world will know them by. But people are more than their mistakes. We all know this, although we pretend to forget such things when a neighbor is accused of murder, or rape, or robbing a bank.
So much of the criminal law revolves around a cheap and easy brand of moralism. Prosecutors strut the well of the court demanding “accountability” of the accused, as...
July 27, 2013
I suppose it is now official: Detroit has gone bankrupt, or, at the very least, has sought protection from its creditors in a federal bankruptcy court. What was once the nation’s fourth most populous city is now the biggest municipality ever to throw up its hands in financial despair.
Detroit is a place I once called home. Even when the city was healthy, it scared me. I recall driving by some of the giant auto factories. Most of my classmates were headed there. You could make a decent living in those plants, enough for a small home in the city itself, and a small...
July 20, 2013
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
July 15, 2013
George Zimmerman was acquitted of both the crimes of murder and manslaughter in Florida last week. Today, plenty of folks are angry about...
July 13, 2013
Six women -- five white, and one Hispanic -- acquitted George Zimmerman Saturday night for the killing of Trayvon Martin. The jurors rejected both a...
July 11, 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...
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...